Criminalize coercive control

AI summary

Petitioners ask Government to criminalize coercive mental and emotional abuse, revise bail, expand protections, and train officials. The government responds that Bill C-16 creates a coercive-control offence and allows up to two years for implementation.

AI summaries describe petitioners’ requests and claims. Consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada WHEREAS: Intimate partner violence (IPV) represents traumatic violence that extends beyond physical injuries, often beginning with severe mental, emotional, and psychological abuse that forms a continuous pattern of behavior that manipulates, intimidates, isolates, and instills fear in an intimate or former intimate partner; The current violence-incident model in the Canadian justice system of violence fails to recognize patterns of mental and emotional abuse and often fails to intervene before the risk of violence or homicide increases, leaving victims of this ongoing abuse without adequate legal protection; The Journal of Community Safety & Well Being and numerous other academic studies have written that mental and emotional abuse is one of the most significant risk factors and precursors for future serious or fatal violence; Targeted mental and emotional abuse is currently not a standalone offense under the Criminal Code of Canada, bail system or sentencing guidelines; Legislation criminalizing this behaviour is in place in the UK (2015), Scotland (2018), Ireland (2018), Northern Ireland (2021) and New South Wales, Australia (2022); Recognizing mental and emotional abuse as a precursor to physical violence is essential to enhancing victim safety, allowing law enforcement to intervene earlier, and holding perpetrators accountable before violence escalates; THEREFORE: We, the undersigned residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to introduce and pass legislation to create a specific provision in the Criminal Code of Canada that criminalizes targeted mental and emotional abuse in the same way as physical intimate partner violence, adjusts bail and sentencing guidelines to ensure this kind of abuse is properly considered as a serious and violent offense, expands legal protections for victims of ongoing mental and emotional abuse and ensures that judicial education and law enforcement training address the recognition and investigation of this form of abuse.

Government response

Response by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Signed by THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY PATRICIA LATTANZIO The Government of Canada recognizes that coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate partner relationships, including mental and emotional abuse, can cause serious and lasting harm, and can often be a predictor of future physical violence. This is why Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act, which received Royal Assent on June 18, 2026, created a new Criminal Code offence targeting coercive and controlling conduct in intimate partner relationships. This offence prohibits engaging in a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct toward an intimate partner with the intent to cause them to fear for their physical or psychological safety, or while knowing, or being reckless as to whether, the conduct would have that effect. This new offence is informed by Scotland’s coercive control offence which recognizes that abuse in intimate partner relationships often takes the form of ongoing patterns of controlling behaviour rather than isolated incidents. The Government further recognizes that effective implementation of this offence will require training and education for police, prosecutors, judges, and other justice system participants to ensure that coercive control is properly identified, investigated, and prosecuted, so that those who engage in this harmful conduct are held accountable. For this reason, the offence will have up to two years after Royal Assent to come into force. This delayed coming-into-force period is intended to provide time for jurisdictions and justice system participants to undertake the necessary training, education, and implementation work to support the effective application of this important new offence. The Government believes these reforms represent an important step toward strengthening protections for victims by creating more tools to intervene in intimate partner violence before it becomes fatal, thereby improving the criminal justice system’s response to intimate partner violence.