Status of Women committee  Without training, without awareness about what it is, I'm not sure, but if you provide some tools, if you provide some information, if you do some sessions with different stakeholders, then you could be prepared for that. I gave a presentation to the National Judicial Institute with judges.

Status of Women committee  That's an excellent question, but no, I have not studied the issue of police officers that are perpetrators themselves.

Status of Women committee  Not necessarily, because, for example, in some police agencies, they do have special units. They have special investigators who are going to work with victims, but we really need to be able to remove police officers when we start knowing that they are involved themselves in abusing their spouses.

Status of Women committee  Yes, of course. We were talking about training for police officers, Crown prosecutors and judges. In Quebec, the director of criminal and penal prosecutions has adopted a definition of coercive control, and Crown prosecutors must now take controlling behaviours into account. To better demonstrate these behaviours, coercive control training is offered in Quebec for better judicial practice.

Status of Women committee  I don't know if it stems from specialized courts. Just about everywhere in Canada, there are specialized courts that hear cases involving family violence and domestic violence, and, in Quebec, sexual violence as well. Clearly, the professionals who work in these specialized courts are going to need to be trained to better understand coercive control.

Status of Women committee  You can do micromanagement and surveillance, and there may not be any manifestation of physical violence. When I say coercive control, it implies both non-physical violence and physical violence. All three elements don't have to be present to be in the presence of coercive control; even if there's only surveillance, that's enough.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. I think more and more as we're talking about coercive control we're raising awareness within the population. What I'm seeing is that women are calling me and asking when this will be criminalized. I already know, from doing round tables with police officers, that they are looking for something.

Status of Women committee  First of all, if the bill says that a certain number of repeated behaviours must be determined, police officers are going to have the precise tools to better investigate this type of offence and ask a certain type of question. The burden of proof won't rest solely on the victim, but also on the police officer, who will be able to gather evidence that doesn't necessarily involve injury or property damage.

Status of Women committee  No, I'm talking about the cameras worn by the officers of certain police departments on their uniforms when they intervene. That can provide evidence. Evidence can also include emails, statements from relatives showing that the victim is no longer in contact with them, or testimonials from friends.

Status of Women committee  It's essential, that's obvious. We won't be able to enshrine an offence of coercive control in the law if we don't train the people who work in the justice system. It starts with police officers, so that they know what coercive control is. It will also have to be done for Crown attorneys, defence counsel and judges.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the members of the committee for inviting me to present in this meeting on coercive behaviour. My research focuses on the police response to intimate partner violence, IPV, especially coercive control. As such, I conducted a survey with police officers on their perception of IPV involving coercive control.

Justice committee  During the pandemic, I spoke a lot about coercive control in the media, so I had a number of calls from victims. IPV did not decrease because of the end of the pandemic. It pretty much increased.

Justice committee  I will echo what Andrea just said, but I want to remind you about the change of legislation in 1983 for sexual assault. We went from rape to sexual assault. That particular legislation completely changed our way of viewing sexual violence. I think legislation like this bill could have the potential to change our way of viewing the complexity of intimate partner violence.

Justice committee  Absolutely. It also involves the abuse of the animal that lives in the home. I've seen cases where the partner has killed the dog. That was his way of telling his partner that she could be next. There is an issue when you start seeing abuse towards pets. It's generally a red flag telling us that if it can go towards the pets, then it can go towards the partner.

Justice committee  The offence would not necessarily consist of an event, but of a set of behaviours. How do we determine that these are controlling behaviours? We'll have to rethink the way we put questions to the victims. This will make it possible to establish the type of controlling behaviour they've been subjected to.