Justice committee  We're not talking here about parents disciplining their children. We're talking about children who are covictims of domestic violence. As soon as coercive control is exercised by a spouse, it becomes important to examine the impact this has on children.

Justice committee  For example, I think of a child who lives in a climate of terror because his mother is abused by her partner. We consider this child to be a covictim of domestic violence or coercive control. I'm also thinking of a child who gets hurt trying to defend their mother. That's a more

Justice committee  We've seen an increase in the number of requests. In Quebec, especially during the pandemic, there were a lot of awareness campaigns, because we wanted the message to reach isolated women. The Quebec government ran an excellent campaign on coercive control, as did groups like our

Justice committee  Please allow me to add a comment. In the lessons learned, we saw that, in a certain case, the police had been trained but the prosecutors had not. The police mobilized and reported the complaints. However, the prosecutors didn't deal with them, which subsequently discouraged the

Justice committee  If I may, I would add that, in our work with victims of domestic violence, we see quite clearly that they are dealing with behaviour that is ongoing, that is repeated over time, not a few isolated acts. This behaviour extends over weeks, even months. Sometimes, control can set in

Justice committee  What we wanted, in fact, was to replace this proposed provision completely, so as to make greater use of the definition of “intimate partner” already in the Criminal Code. So we didn't go into those details.

Justice committee  It's obvious that, for spouses exercising coercive control, all means are good. Some will go after animals to get to their victim, to worry her, to tell her that next time they'll go after her rather than their pet or farm animal.

Justice committee  As my colleague just said, I think training is an essential tool if we want all the players to understand what coercive control is. It's also important to give guidelines to prosecutors, police officers, everyone in the chain, right down to parole officers, so they know how to h

Justice committee  Good morning. We thank the committee for the opportunity to speak on such an important topic as the criminalization of coercive control. We also want to thank Mr. Garrison and Ms. Collins, members of Parliament, for having persevered in their efforts to create this offence. Our

Public Safety committee  The National Association of Women and the Law has also done some excellent work in its proposed amendments.

Public Safety committee  To keep all victims of domestic violence safe, all parts of the safety net have to work. All the various measures need to mesh tightly together. If there is a protection order, revocation of a licence needs to be considered. If there has been violence or suspected violence, licen

Public Safety committee  I fully agree. The information has to be provided quickly. In fact, if a violent spouse who intends to harm his family is allowed too much time, he can become a time bomb and end up acting out. I believe 24 hours is appropriate. Similarly, if a licence is revoked, the owner of

Public Safety committee  I believe that the current system, in which you can contact either the police or the office of the chief firearms officer, is a good one. It could be improved, however, and that's perhaps why some effort is required. It's important to ensure that all requests are taken seriously

Public Safety committee  A definition of "protection order" broad enough to include all types of orders, whether provincial or under the Criminal Code, needs to be included. To return to your question about the court, even if research has shown that domestic violence continues after a separation and tha

Public Safety committee  Yes indeed. If we want to protect victims of domestic or family violence, then there has to be a safety net for them. Family and friends have responsibilities, and professionals even more so. However, the latter should not be placed in a situation which they believe clashes with