This enactment amends the Criminal Code to create an offence of engaging in controlling or coercive conduct that has a significant impact on the person towards whom the conduct is directed, including a fear of violence, a decline in their physical or mental health and a substantial adverse effect on their day-to-day activities.

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Controlling or Coercive Conduct

Offence

264.‍01 (1) Everyone commits an offence who repeatedly or continuously engages in controlling or coercive conduct towards a person with whom they are connected that they know or ought to know could, in all the circumstances, reasonably be expected to have a significant impact on that person and that has such an impact on that person.

Interpretation — significant impact

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the conduct has a significant impact on the person if

• (a) it causes the person to fear, on reasonable grounds, on more than one occasion, that violence will be used against them;

• (b) it causes the person’s physical or mental health to decline; or

• (c) it causes the person alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse effect on their day-to-day activities, including

  • (i) limits on their ability to safeguard their well-being or that of their children,

  • (ii) changes in or restrictions on their social activities or their communication with others,

  • (iii) absences from work or from education or training programs or changes in their routines or status in relation to their employment or education, and

  • (iv) changes of address.

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Interpretation — connected

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), two persons are connected if

• (a) they are current spouses, common-law partners or dating partners, or have agreed to marry each other; or

• (b) they are members of the same household, and

  • (i) are former spouses, common-law partners or dating partners,

  • (ii) have agreed to marry each other, whether or not the agreement has been terminated,

  • (iii) are relatives, or

  • (iv) carry out, or have carried out, parental responsibilities in respect of the same child, that child being under the age of 18 years.

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Exception — best interests of the person

(4) If an accused is charged with an offence under subsection (1), it is a defence — in relation to conduct that is alleged to have caused a significant impact described in paragraph (2)‍(b) or (c) — that

• (a) the accused was acting in the best interests of the person towards whom the conduct was directed; and

• (b) the conduct was reasonable in all the circumstances.

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Proof of facts

(5) Evidence that the accused was acting in the best interests of the person towards whom the conduct was directed and that the conduct was reasonable in all the circumstances is, in the absence of evidence that proves the contrary beyond a reasonable doubt, proof of those facts.‍

Punishment

(6) Everyone who commits an offence under subsection (1)

• (a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; or

• (b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

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