As of June 2024, Bill C-332 is at its second reading in Canada’s Senate, following its third reading in the House of Commons. Introduced by NDP MP Laurel Collins, Bill C-332 is an amendment to the Criminal Code that would criminalize coercive control in intimate relationships.
Coercive control involves a continuing yet often subtle and nuanced pattern of behaviour by one partner through tactics of domination, isolation, manipulation, intimidation and fear. Many victims and survivors of coercive control have highlighted its insidious nature and how it’s often invisible to those outside of the family.
Bill C-332 seeks to criminalize “using or attempting to use or threatening to use violence against certain persons, coercing or attempting to coerce the intimate partner to engage in sexual activity or engaging in other conduct that could reasonably be expected to believe that their safety, or the safety of a person known to them is threatened.” The proposed legislation calls for a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone convicted of coercive control.
