I'm not a prosecutor, but I do understand the components of this offence. What we heard during our engagement process was that this was one of many tactics that people who engage in coercive control of their intimate partners engage in. It would be part of a pattern of conduct, let's say, that may involve violent behaviour, sexually coercive behaviour and other forms of coercive conduct that are more subtle—surveilling, monitoring the victim, denying them ways to express themselves through their culture or religion, for example, and so on. It's a pattern that takes place over time.
I'll just make the quick comment that this is very modern criminal law. This committee has already heard extensive testimony about the criminal law being traditionally incident-based. This is trying to go beyond that. It's trying to capture patterns of conduct, or conduct that takes place over time. Because of that, it's been inspired by the other offence in the Criminal Code that attempts to target conduct that takes place over time. That is the human trafficking offence. There, we also see lots of different coercive-type conduct being engaged in by an accused in order to exploit a more vulnerable person.
It's similar in that regard, but we are looking at a pattern of conduct, which means you cannot ground a conviction on one incident. It's not possible to do so, given the way this offence is constructed.