Criminalizing Coercive Control

Since 2015, several countries have taken steps to criminalize coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate relationships. The first countries to legislate in this area were England and Wales (2015), followed by Scotland (2018), Ireland (2019), and since 2020, certain American and Australian states. While all these legislations have criminalized coercive control or are in the process of doing so, it is important to note that not all laws are created equal, and some are more comprehensive than others.   
 
To learn more about the legal practices of countries that have criminalized coercive control, see our literature review (p. 73-77)

Currently, criminal prosecutions for conjugal violence are mainly pursued in cases of physical violence and when incidents are treated as isolated. The Criminal Code of Canada provides for several offences, such as threats (section 264.1), criminal harassment (section 264), obstruction of justice (section 139) and mischief (section 430), which can be applied to certain coercive or controlling behaviours in a relationship. However, no offence encompasses all the strategies abusers use to maintain control over their victims.

While coercive control is not yet an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada, there have been some legislative and policy advances at the national level in recent years:

• Private Member's Bill C-332, introduced by the New Democratic Party (NDP), aims to criminalize coercive control. It advanced through several important stages in 2024.
• Bill C-233, also known as "Keira's Law" in honour of 4-year-old Keira, who died as a result of post-separation conjugal violence, was passed on April 18, 2023. This law aims to improve judges' understanding of conjugal violence and the central role played by coercive control in this context (House of Commons Debates, March 10, 2023, p. 1245). To this end, the Act provides for seminars on coercive control of intimate partners as part of judicial training. 

Changes to Directive VIO-1 applicable to conjugal violence cases (in Quebec)

Since June 2023, the notion of coercive control has been integrated into Directive VIO-1 regarding conjugal violence, which applies to all criminal and penal prosecutors across the province of Quebec.

• The directive includes the notion of coercive control in the general definition of conjugal violence.
• It specifies that coercive control is a factor to be taken into account when releasing an accused perpetrator on bail.  
• In the event of release, the prosecutor must take into account the context of coercive control to establish the appropriate conditions of release to ensure the safety of victims and their children.

Divorce Act (Canada)

Since March 2021, the presence of coercive control must be taken into account in a divorce proceeding to ensure the physical and emotional safety of the child (Divorce Act RSC 1985, c. 3, section 16 (4)).

Practically speaking:  

• The definition (section 2) contains a non-exhaustive list of behaviours that may be considered as conjugal violence: harassment, threats, sexual abuse, economic violence, and also violence against animals.
• The definition clarifies that conduct need not constitute a criminal offence or meet the offence threshold of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" to be considered conjugal violence. 

For years, the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale has advocated for a coercive control offence in the Criminal Code, while stressing the need for awareness, training, guidelines, and reporting processes for effective implementation.

For more information, consult the Regroupement's Case for Making Coercive Control a Criminal Offence [in French only : Plaidoyer pour la création d’une infraction criminelle de contrôle coercitif dans le contexte de relations intimes].