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For years, advocates have warned that intimate partner violence does not always leave a visible injury.
Now, Canada’s Protecting Victims Act has created a new Criminal Code offence aimed specifically at patterns of coercive or controlling behaviour between intimate partners.
The offence is not yet in force, with a delayed implementation period intended to give the justice system time to prepare.
This week on Silence Broken: The IPV Talks, host Bob Perreault asks Lanark County Interval House Executive Director Erin Lee what the change could mean for survivors.
Lee says recognizing non-physical abuse in law is significant.
The legislation identifies patterns that can include monitoring someone’s movements or communications, controlling finances, employment, education or health care, threatening self-harm, damaging property and other conduct that threatens physical or psychological safety.
Lee says the challenge will be recognizing a pattern rather than looking only for a single incident or physical injury.
That includes listening when someone says controlling behaviour happens repeatedly.
The episode also examines the need for training, documentation and safeguards to prevent the law from being misused against victims.
The complete conversation is featured in this week’s Silence Broken: The IPV Talks, found below.
