Conservatives push to fast-track ‘Bailey’s Law’ as intimate partner violence rates climb
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Shadow Minister for Public Safety Frank Caputo are urging Parliament to fast-track new legislation to combat intimate partner violence (IPV).
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Shadow Minister for Public Safety Frank Caputo are urging Parliament to fast-track new legislation to combat intimate partner violence (IPV) amid a rise in violence against women across Canada.
At a Parliament Hill press conference on Tuesday, Caputo called on MPs to grant unanimous consent to pass Bill C-225, known as Bailey’s Law, which aims to overhaul how Canada’s justice system handles IPV-related offences.
The bill, currently in its second reading, is named after Bailey McCourt, a Nova Scotia woman killed by her estranged husband in a domestic homicide that shocked her community. Her family, including Debbie Henderson and Trish McCourt, joined Poilievre and Caputo as they appealed to lawmakers.
“Our justice system must no longer look the other way when it comes to repeat abusers,” Caputo said. “This law will ensure serious consequences for intimate partner violence, and give survivors the protection they deserve.”
If passed, Bill C-225 would classify the murder of a current or former intimate partner as first-degree murder, even without premeditation. It would also create new standalone offences for assault and criminal harassment involving intimate partners and give judges more tools to detain or deny bail to accused high-risk abusers.
The legislation would also require bail hearings for those convicted of IPV within five years to be handled by a judge, not a justice of the peace. Additionally, it would allow for enhanced risk assessments and modernize rules governing seized evidence.
The call for reform coincided with new national data revealing rising levels of intimate partner violence. According to the report, there were over 128,000 police-reported IPV victims in 2024 — a 14 per cent increase since 2018.
The report found women and girls remain disproportionately affected, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of intimate partner homicides over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2024, the number of female IPV victims jumped by nearly 39 per cent, with a sharp 18 per cent increase since the passage of Bill C-75 in 2019, which significantly altered Canada’s bail system.
In 2024 alone, 100 Canadians were killed by a current or former partner, and 25,938 children and youth were victims of family violence.
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Fully agree with Caputo's ideas and method of correction to address this problem. He obviously has far more common sense than that idiot that calls himself the minister of safety.