Ottawa has just begun its consultations on coercive control, after recently saying it was open to creating a new offense in the Criminal Code to better protect the too many victims of domestic violence. Invited Thursday to offer its expertise by the Department of Justice of Canada, the Regroupement des maison pour femmes victims de violence conjugal du Québec pleaded in favor of the criminalization of coercive control.
The moment is unique: “It is not every day that the legislator has the opportunity to create a new offense which has the power to save lives”, underlined Louise Riendeau, co-responsible for political files within the Regroupement.
Various groups that work with victims of violence have been calling for this for a long time.
Coercive control refers to all the strategies put in place by the aggressor to violate, exploit, humiliate and manipulate their victim. It’s an insidious, gradual takeover that doesn’t necessarily need blows to take effect. Often invisible to those around them, it aims to establish and maintain domination over the victim, we can read on the website of the Group of houses for women victims of domestic violence.
Recently, the Canadian Department of Justice indicated that it was “mobilizing” provincial and territorial governments, advocates for victims and survivors of gender-based violence, academic researchers and other stakeholders to guide his work.
The process has therefore begun: virtual consultations are underway with key people. On Thursday, representatives of the Minister of Justice of Canada, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Minister of Public Security of Quebec and a representative of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) took part.
Preventing escalation of violence
During this meeting, the Group argued that the criminalization of coercive control would make it possible to deploy a safety net around victims, prevent the escalation of violence and save lives.
This would be the case because an offense duly registered in the Criminal Code would give the police and those involved in the legal system the means to act with victims whose safety is threatened, but who have not suffered any action that corresponds to a current offense . We often hear police officers say that they have observed truly disturbing behavior on the part of a spouse, but say that they cannot do anything because it does not correspond to a criminal offense, explained M in an interview.me Riendeau.
If coercive control constitutes an offense, “that would change the conversation,” said Ms.me Riendeau, in addition to giving levers to the judicial system.
Obviously, for the Regroupement, which brings together 46 help and accommodation centers, the creation of an offense alone will not be able to solve everything.
If this does not come with training for responders, without adequate funding and without a public awareness campaign, “it could be a failure in the water,” warned M.me Riendeau.
Beyond judicialization, we must also focus on the addition of general and specialized social services, insists the Group.
Ottawa will be able to benefit from the experience of criminalizing coercive control in other states and countries, including Scotland, Ireland and Australia.
For the moment, the federal Ministry of Justice has not revealed a timetable for its work. Other organizations working to combat domestic violence such as the Provincial Association of Transition Homes and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS) and Sagesse en Alberta also testified Thursday.