Mr. Speaker, I rise today again, and as well, to support Bill C-16, the protecting victims act.
The bill is grounded in a simple but powerful principle: that abuse and harassment are not acceptable, no matter whom they target, and we are not going to normalize that any longer. Bill C-16 puts the safety and dignity of victims first, especially women, children and survivors, by modernizing the Criminal Code to address coercive control and online exploitation.
Violence and harassment seldom start with a single act. They emerge through patterns of intimidation. I have experienced personally, as have many of my colleagues, deliberate middle-of-the-night calls meant to intimidate, using a number shared widely by email with incitement to harass. That is not civic engagement.
Bill C-16 recognizes those patterns and gives our justice system the tools to intervene earlier and to act. It also strengthens victims' rights and helps ensure that serious cases are not lost to delay. Bill C-16 helps ensure that safety—