Last month, significant changes to Canada’s Criminal Code were passed into law to strengthen protections for victims of gender-based violence, and to keep children safe from predators.
The Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16) received Royal Assent on June 18. Most of the changes came into force on July 18.
“In general, all of the changes that are in this announcement are designed to provide more recognition of vulnerable victims and their experience of the criminal legal system and trying to mitigate that with support,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of the Vancouver-based Battered Women’s Support Services.
The law gives the justice system stronger tools to intervene earlier to sexual violence, gender-based, and intimate partner violence before it turns fatal, according to the federal government. More specifically, the changes:
- make femicide, which is the intentional killing of women and girls due to their gender, first degree murder, the most serious homicide offence
- create a new offence of coercive control in intimate relationships, targeting patterns of threats, isolation, or manipulation before violence escalates
- update criminal harassment provisions to make them easier to prove in court
- make it a crime to threaten to distribute non-consensual intimate images, including sexual deepfakes
- increase the maximum penalty for sexual assault on summary conviction, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, and voyeurism
On July 17, the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) updated the Crown Counsel Policy Manual to reflect the Criminal Code amendments.
MacDougall said the updated language and new guidance around bail revocation is a “big one”.
“It’s unfortunate that women had to die for this to be obvious, frankly,” said MacDougall, referencing the death of Kelowna mom Bailey McCourt.
On July 4, 2025, McCourt was violently attacked in a parking lot by her estranged ex-husband James Plover – on the same day he was found guilty of assault by choking. Despite the guilty verdict, Plover was released by the Kelowna Court on bail, with a future date for sentencing.
“In any functioning public safety system, that conviction would have triggered immediate and coordinated intervention. In British Columbia, it triggered his release,” stated the BWSS in response to McCourt’s death.
“Despite the conviction, the charges were stayed. The risk was not reassessed. He walked free.
And days later, Bailey was dead,” said the BWSS.
The Bail and Sentencing Reform Act (Bill C-14) makes it harder for repeat or violent offenders to get out on bail.
One of the key changes regarding bail revocation enacts “reverse onus” in certain offences such as assault, sexual assault involving choking, human trafficking, and repeat violent offences, according to BCPS.
“Reverse onus” in bail hearings means the accused must prove their right to be released rather than the Crown prosecution proving why they should stay detained. Additionally, when an offender is in a reverse onus situation, they must clearly demonstrate that they have a release plan that addresses the risk posed, said BCPS.
“I am especially encouraged by changes to reverse-onus bail provisions, one of B.C.’s top priorities in our proposals to the federal government. Too many families in British Columbia have experienced devastating loss because of repeat violence. These changes will help better protect people before harm occurs,” said Niki Sharma, Deputy Premier and Attorney General of B.C., in a media release.
“Bailey’s Law”, or Bill C-225, works in concert with the Protecting Victims Act, according to the federal government. Named after Bailey McCourt, the new law enacts stronger criminal measures to address intimate partner violence by:
- treating murders that occur within a pattern of coercive or controlling behaviour toward an intimate partner as murders in the first degree
- requiring courts to consider life imprisonment, with parole ineligibility of 10 to 25 years, when manslaughter is committed against an intimate partner in the context of such a pattern
- creating a new offence for violent, threatened, or attempted violence against an intimate partner
- extending the maximum period for detaining seized items
“This is huge. We’ve seen a man kill the mother of their children and get five years and then have custody of the children a year later,” said MacDougall.
“Overall, people are just tired of men killing women. This just sends a strong message. I think that’s important for our culture to say that there is going to be strong consequences for this kind of violence,” she said.
The law changes follow recommendations from Dr. Kim Stanton’s review of the province’s treatment of victims and survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence in the legal system. Stanton’s review found that 79 per cent of intimate partner violence homicide victims over the last 15 years were women and girls.
Sexual violence and intimate partner violence disproportionately impacts Indigenous women. The Stanton review showed the rate of intimate partner violence against women aged 15 and older living in a remote area was over four times higher than the rate among women in accessible areas.
From 2009 to 2021, 490 Indigenous women and girls were victims of homicide. In this time frame, the rate of homicide of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and girls was six times higher than the rate among their non-Indigenous counterparts, according to the Stanton review.
Most survivors never access the legal system – 94 per cent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police, notes the Stanton review.
“There is reporting happening, but not to police. The police are typically the problem in terms of how they deal with these crimes,” said MacDougall. “That’s were it all breaks down, the evidentiary part of it. We have a hard time getting them to conduct proper investigations right now. These cases are complicated.”
