Status of Women committee  Thank you for your comments. If the courts restrict the freedom of people subject to a recognizance to keep the peace under section 810, they mainly focus on the conditions that must be met. For example, a person may have to wear a remote monitoring device, refrain from using social media, provide samples for analysis, abstain from using drugs, and so on.

Status of Women committee  Each of the peace bonds that currently exist in the code can be ordered for a period not exceeding 12 months. That's the current wording in the code. The more specialized peace bonds that I mentioned—such as organized crime, forced marriage, sexual offences against a minor and terrorism—have this additional provision that says the peace bond can be ordered for up to two years if there's a prior conviction.

Status of Women committee  I appreciate the concern. Certainly there are well-known delays throughout the criminal justice system across Canada; it really depends on the jurisdiction. For peace bonds, there's nothing preventing someone from going in early to get ahead of the delay. Also, there was an amendment passed by one of the earlier motions that would allow for other people to bring the peace bond on the intimate partner's behalf.

Status of Women committee  Yes. I believe the question was about the extension of the peace bond. Extension, I guess, is not the most helpful word, but basically you can apply for a longer peace bond. This motion would change it so that a peace bond of up to two years could be applied for if there's a past conviction of intimate partner violence, because of the studies that show that if you have a past conviction of intimate partner violence, you could be more at risk of harming someone in the future.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. The provisions of this bill currently allow the peace bond to be imposed for a duration of two years in any case where the court finds there's a reasonable fear of domestic violence, or three years if the court makes its determination and the defendant has a prior conviction for domestic violence.

Status of Women committee  That's correct. They all start at 12 months. The section 810 peace bond, which is the peace bond people typically go to right now for domestic violence, is for 12 months as well, and there are no means to have it extended. This peace bond for domestic violence would be distinct from that process right now, because you could still extend it.

Status of Women committee  The existing peace bonds in the code, which have a duration of 12 months with the possibility of extension if there's a prior conviction, have been upheld as constitutional. Therefore, it does provide some comfort in terms of how the peace bond regime is compatible with the charter.

Status of Women committee  In the peace bond context, there's no finding of guilt, but as you say, sometimes people go for a peace bond midway through trial. They realize that maybe the case isn't strong enough, so they decide to settle on a peace bond arrangement. There is no finding of guilt, though. There's no criminal offence that's been acknowledged when a peace bond is signed.

Status of Women committee  Yes, no criminal offence has been committed in the peace bond context. If someone was actually convicted of an offence, a personal injury offence towards an intimate partner, that person would be looking at possibly a much longer sentence—possibly 10 years—depending on the context.

Status of Women committee  The provisions in the bill, as drafted right now, allow for the peace bond, the new peace bond for intimate partner violence, to be imposed for a duration of two years in any case where the court finds that there's a reasonable fear of domestic violence, or for three years if the court makes the determination and the defendant also has a prior conviction for intimate partner violence.

Status of Women committee  This provision of the new peace bond regime allows the judge to call upon the parties to come for a hearing. It's different from the first provision under proposed section 810.03. I look at the bill alongside the motion to understand and situate the change that's going to be made.

Status of Women committee  As my colleague pointed out, all the other peace bonds in the Criminal Code currently use “reasonable fear”. I understand the concern that it does sound subjective, but the courts have interpreted it as being an objective test, even though there's a subjective connotation to it.

Status of Women committee  Reasonable fear is the test that's currently in the existing eight or nine peace bond provisions, including terrorism, organized crime, sexual offences against a minor, forced marriage and serious personal injury. They all use the reasonable fear test. It has been upheld by the courts as constitutional.

Status of Women committee  Basically, there isn't really any difference between “believes” and “fears” from a legal standpoint, according to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Both require an objective assessment by the court. Regardless of which term you use, the court has said that the test will be the same.

Status of Women committee  I think they're two separate issues. Clause 1 dealt with the bail provisions of the code, and clause 2 really gets into the peace bond regime, which is an entirely different regime. Part of the confusion might be that some of the wording in section 810 was suggested to be amended by G-3, which would allow a police officer to bring the information on the intimate partner's behalf.