Poilievre promises new Criminal Code offence for intimate partner violence

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says if elected his government will reverse the ‘catch and release’ laws of early bail, and house arrest.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to toughen the penalties for intimate partner violence if his party forms government after this election.

At a campaign stop in Trois-Rivières, Que., on Friday, Poilievre was joined by a number of survivors of intimate partner violence, along with former Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, who has been an advocate for victims of crime since his daughter Julie was killed in 2002.

Boisvenu said the current laws “protect our cars better than women.”

Marilyne Gelinas said Friday was the first time she spoke publicly about her experience, and the fear she lives with.

“There is no sentence that will completely resolve the trauma. Never, never, never,” she said in French.

But, she said, victims need to feel heard, respected and validated by the justice system. She called for tougher sentences for people convicted of intimate partner violence.

Karine Bleau said she lived with abuse for years, until her former partner also assaulted her daughter. She said she feels that attackers’ rights are given more weight than victims in the justice system, and called on the next government to create a minister for victims.

Poilievre thanked the women for their extraordinary courage in speaking out.

“Some of them have lost loved ones to murder. Others have been terrorized by imprisonment in a small home with a monster for years on end. All of them live with the fear that their aggressor may once again strike them in the future,” he said.

The Conservatives are pledging to create a new criminal offence of assaulting an intimate partner, and to pass a law to require the strictest possible bail conditions for anyone accused of intimate partner violence.

That would include, Poilievre said, GPS ankle bracelet monitoring for those who “in rare cases” are allowed out on bail before their court date.

The Conservatives are also pledging that the murder of an intimate partner or a child would be treated as first-degree murder.

“Studies show that economic stress and financial strain worsen these types of family violence cases,” Poilievre said, adding that reports of family and intimate partner violence have risen in the last decade.

Statistics Canada data shows that police-reported family and intimate partner violence rates were declining between 2009 and 2014.

In 2009, the rate of police-reported intimate partner violence was 350 of every 100,000 people in Canada. In 2014 that dropped to 290 per 100,000, and by 2022 it was back up to 346 per 100,000.

In all cases, in all years, more than twice as many women reported being victimized than men. StatCan reported that Trois-Rivières had the highest rate of family violence of any census metropolitan area in the country in 2022.

While Poilievre acknowledged financial strain is likely a factor in the recent rise, he also blamed the Liberals.

“There was a time when bail laws focused on justice and public safety, when our laws kept the most dangerous behind bars. Now, easy bail and catch-and-release policies tip the scales in favour of the criminals and against the victims,” he said.

Poilievre has promised to undo changes to the country’s bail laws that were passed in 2019.

The Conservative crime policies earned the party an endorsement from the Peel Regional Police Association this week.

The group said in a statement that Poilievre’s policies would ensure “that officers are not wasting time catching the same offenders time and time again.”

A 2024 report by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said that in 2021-2022 just over 70 per cent of people in Canadian provincial and territorial jails are either waiting on a bail determination or awaiting the resolution of their charges and therefore legally innocent.

The group said proposed legislation to reform the bail system, which the Liberals tabled in 2023, was an attempt to address the perception that the bail system is too lenient, particularly when it comes to repeat offenders.

“An extensive body of research contradicts the contention that Canada’s bail system has become unduly lenient or that the bail system is propelling an increase in crime,” the report said.

At the Friday morning event, the Conservative leader was also joined by a number of his party’s candidates in the region.

Simon Payette, the candidate for nearby Berthier-Maskinongé, posted on Facebook in the morning that he was excited to be with Poilievre. By late afternoon, a spokesperson for the party said Payette had been dropped as a candidate due to “completely inappropriate” conduct — which also happened on Facebook.

Payette had been targeting Nathalie Provost, the Liberal candidate in another Quebec riding and a well-known advocate for gun control who survived the École Polytechnique massacre.

In one post, Payette wrote in French that he would look Provost “straight in the eye” as he tore up the gun-control law passed by the Liberals and would use it as toilet paper.

The parties have until Monday to lock in their candidate nominations.

— Written by Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa with files from Pierre Saint-Arnaud in Trois-Rivières

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2025.