Thank you.
As the minister mentioned earlier, when you apply for a peace bond—a peace bond is a preventive court order, although it is in the Criminal Code—and a peace bond is taken out against the defendant, it does not constitute a criminal charge. That defendant would not have a criminal record. It is only if that defendant breaches the peace bond that he or she is subject to a criminal charge and potentially a criminal record. It is a preventive measure, which is extremely useful wherever there are reasonable grounds to fear that an offence will be committed.
We examined the general peace bond provisions and they didn't seem sufficient to address this particular issue, because it is extremely unusual to say that we want somebody to stop making arrangements for a marriage. It was really to focus on stopping those individuals from making the marriage take place, from basically pursuing the preparations and ensuring that the marriage ceremony takes place. In order to focus on that, we have to focus on the specific ceremony itself.
Having an offence based on the marriage ceremony, focused on the unique harm that is related to the marriage ceremony itself—which is basically a violation of that individual's human right to decide when and whom and whether to marry anybody, with all of the potential and almost inevitable violence that falls from that.... By focusing on that particular crystallization of harm, the peace bonds allow us to prevent the harm.
The experience in the U.K. with its forced marriage civil protection orders indicates that these are very effective in stopping families from forcing their children to marry. Most families are doing it because they believe it's in their child's best interest. When they realize, one, that it's illegal and that it's harmful, and two, that if they go ahead with this they will have the shame of having committed a criminal offence, that realization has a very strong dissuasive power.
This is the Canadian equivalent at the federal level of the U.K. civil forced marriage protection orders, because in the Canadian context civil protection orders would fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories.
Once the application is made, there are a number of conditions that can be issued against the defendant, including the requirement to surrender passports and other travel documents, limits on their movements or from leaving the jurisdiction, etc.