Proposed subsection 486.3(2) is a provision that prohibits the accused from cross-examining witnesses in cases involving certain offences. The existing list in the law as it is today includes criminal harassment and the three sexual assault offences. This is to try to minimize revictimization of the victims through court processes. We know that sometimes abusers seek to cross-examine victims in order to continue their abuse of them, so this would prevent that. This is a consequential amendment, so all it does is drop proposed section 264.01 into this subsection.
I understand the proposal is to fairly significantly expand it by including uttering threats, proposed section 264.01 and two of the three assault offences—assault simpliciter and assault causing bodily harm. I understand that the intention is to prevent people who are accused of intimate partner violence from cross-examining victims when they are charged with assault offences. However, the amendment would apply far more broadly than that to all assaults and all uttering of threats, regardless of the relationship between the accused and the victim. Again, this is a consequential amendment in relation to the proposed coercive control offence.