B.C. advocates say details matter as feds table new intimate partner violence bill

A new bill tabled in Ottawa takes aim at perpetrators of intimate partner violence and B.C. says it is also taking steps to address the issue.

A new bill tabled in Ottawa takes aim at perpetrators of intimate partner violence, and B.C.’s attorney general says the province is also taking steps to address the issue.

Surrounded by survivors and advocates Tuesday, federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced the new measures contained in Bill C-16.

According to the federal Justice Department, 187 women were killed violently in Canada in 2024.

“A woman being killed every other day. That is a statistic that should shock the conscience of every Canadian,” Fraser said.

The bill would deem murders motivated by hate or femicide first-degree offences.

It also criminalizes coercive or controlling behaviour. Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services, said this could pave the way for charges in more cases of abuse.

“The inclusion of coercive control is very interesting because that allows the court—the legal system, the criminal system—to look at relationship violence and the dynamics of it, which is an important development in recognizing the complicated factors that are in play that don’t always mean that we have physical violence,” she said.

“We can have an extraordinarily abusive relationship, and nobody’s been hit,”

The wide-ranging 158-page bill would also make it a crime to distribute deep-fake sexual images without someone’s consent.

MacDougall says the details about how the changes are implemented will matter when it comes to ending gender-based violence.

“There’s a lot of questions about ultimately what that’s going to look like on the ground. It’s a lot of work, certainly, in order to make legislation meaningful in practice,” she said.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, BC Attorney General Niki Sharma said the province has begun implementing 13 of 21 recommendations contained in an independent report on gender-based violence and femicide prepared by Dr. Kim Stanton.

But she could not say when all—or even any—of them would be fully implemented.

“I don’t have an outward timeline. But what I am committing to is to give regular updates, including an annual report about our progress related to each of those items,” Sharma said.

The family of Bailey McCourt, a mother of two killed in Kelowna in July in an alleged act of intimate partner violence, has been lobbying Ottawa for changes to the Criminal Code of Canada.

“My initial thoughts are, you know, this is this has been a long time coming. We need change. It’s clear. It’s been declared an epidemic,” McCourt’s aunt Debbie Henderson said.

“We are in full support of initiatives going forward to make change, to help protect victims of intimate partner violence.”

Henderson recently travelled to Ottawa in support of a Conservative private member’s bill known as Bill C-255, or “Bailey’s Law,” which also includes amendments to the Criminal Code, altered bail rules for people with previous domestic violence convictions, and first-degree murder charges for anyone accused of killing an intimate partner.

The bill was introduced by Frank Caputo, the Conservative MP for Kamloops–Thompson–Nicola.

Henderson said she has not had a chance to thoroughly review Bill C-16, the government’s legislation, but based on what she does know about it she has some concerns.

“Our family has taken the stance we have been pushing for Bailey’s Law. We want something independent, that’s not intermixed with various different categories,” Henderson said, referring to other elements of Bill C-16 that do not deal directly with intimate partner violence.

Ultimately, she is advocating in the memory of her niece for changes that can help prevent similar tragedies from happening to other families.

“I think she would be proud of how much we’ve been able to push and will continue to push to help keep her daughters, to help keep her sisters, safe from the same thing happening to them,” Henderson said.

James Plover, McCourt’s former partner, faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with her death.