Enact Intimate Partner Violence Act
Petitioners ask Parliament to enact the Intimate Partner Violence Prevention and Enforcement Act to tighten bail (including reverse onus for choking), enable Clare’s Law disclosures, restrict offender name changes and marriage‑licence checks, and mandate monitoring, treatment and specialized oversight. The government responds that Bill C‑14 proposes reverse‑onus bail reforms and further victim protections.
Why we would sign this petition
- Would increase victim safety by tightening bail and adding reverse onus for choking, addressing a known lethality risk factor.
- Would give potential partners information via Clare’s Law disclosures and marriage‑licence checks, supporting informed decisions.
- Would improve oversight and reduce reoffending through mandated treatment, electronic monitoring and a specialized enforcement and review body.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Reverse onus and automatic restrictions may raise due‑process and presumption‑of‑innocence concerns for accused persons.
- Creating monitoring, an IPV commissioner and mandatory checks would require substantial resources and complex administration.
- Broad restrictions and mandatory checks risk privacy harms or unintended barriers to relationships without proven net benefit.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the House of Commons Since June 2025, at least five women in British Columbia have been tragically killed and three seriously injured in incidents linked to intimate partner violence (IPV), while across Canada, one woman is murdered by an intimate partner every five to six days—highlighting systemic failures that endanger victims and demand urgent action; The Intimate Partner Violence Prevention and Enforcement Act introduces evidence-based, life-saving reforms to strengthen prevention and protection; These include bail amendments, creating a reverse onus for assaults involving choking, suffocation, or strangulation, and strengthening Section 523 to remove automatic release pending sentencing; The Act also establishes a disclosure protocol (Right to Ask / Right to Know), modeled on Clare’s Law, allowing individuals to learn of a partner’s violent past; It introduces restrictions on legal name changes for IPV offenders, preventing abusers from hiding criminal records; Requires mandatory criminal record checks for marriage licenses to ensure informed consent; Provides for court-ordered treatment programs and electronic monitoring of high-risk offenders to reduce reoffending and improve safety; Establishes a specialized IPV Enforcement Unit, a Fatality Review Committee, and an independent IPV Commissioner to enhance oversight and accountability; and These reforms reflect best practices from other jurisdictions and aim to save lives, protect survivors, and close dangerous gaps in the justice system. We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to honour these women’s memory and prevent further tragedies by enacting the Intimate Partner Violence Prevention and Enforcement Act without delay.
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 Gender-based violence (GBV), including intimate partner violence (IPV)has no place in Canada. That is why the Government of Canada is committed to addressing all forms of GBV, including IPV. The Government’s commitments in this regard have been unwavering and include: protecting victims of sexual violence and IPV by making murder motivated by hate a constructive first-degree murder offence, including femicides; making it a criminal offence to distribute non-consensual sexual deepfakes and increasing penalties for the non-consensual distribution of intimate images; and, protecting children from online sexploitation and extortion. The Government has been clear these will be introduced in the coming months. On October 23, 2025, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-14, the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act to strengthen bail and sentencing laws to address repeat and violent offending. Among other things, the Bill would add a reverse onus where the accused is charged with assault or sexual assault allegedly involving choking, suffocation or strangulation. This means that the accused must be detained unless they can demonstrate why they should be released on bail. This change would account for the increased safety risks that someone charged with this type of offending may pose to their victim, as well as evidence suggesting that these forms of violence are a key risk factor for lethality – particularly in the IPV context. The Bill would also create a reverse onus where a person, who has been released on bail, is found guilty of an offence and the Crown seeks to revoke the person’s bail order until their sentence is imposed. This change would make it more difficult for offenders to stay out on bail pending sentencing when the Crown has reason to believe that their bail should be revoked, for example to protect the safety of a victim (including an intimate partner). The changes proposed in Bill C-14 are the latest in a series of reforms to strengthen community safety and Canada’s justice system. In the coming months, the Government of Canada has committed to bringing forward further changes to address court delays, strengthen victims’ rights, better protect people facing sexual and intimate partner violence, and keep children safe from horrific crimes.