This petition is in support of Bill C-233 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner), which was introduced in the House of Commons as a private member’s bill and underwent its first reading on February 7, 2022.
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3956&fbclid=IwAR1kzgnoVvOlQHi3Lgn8gaqItR2fGUdQW-R2yZ7gXuvTQH2BAYhTPJ5yiJk
(Note that there are two steps to the petition—after signing, you need to click the link in an email that is sent to you to confirm your identity.)
Read a news story about the loss of Keira, a four-year-old who was killed by her father after a failure by the family court system, here.
There are two very important pieces to this Bill: training for judges on IPV and coercive control and a requirement for judges to consider adding electronic monitoring as a condition of release orders for people who have been charged with offences against their intimate partners. Read a letter from PATHS highlighting some of the evidence for these changes here.
"A phone, a smart home, a digitally connected car — these are the tools of digital domestic abuse that anti-violence experts say is on the rise." https://halifax.citynews.ca/local-news/from-smart-homes-to-connected-cars-new-tools-of-domestic-abuse-make-escape-harder-6302304