The federal government introduced a justice reform bill on Tuesday (Dec. 9) that strengthens penalties for intimate partner violence by designating femicide and hate-related killings as first-degree murder.
A history of abuse, sexual violence or coercive control would be used to make this determination.
This is one of the changes sought by the family of Bailey McCourt, a 32-year-old woman attacked in broad daylight in the Mill Creek Crossing parking lot at the corner of Enterprise Way and Spall Road in Kelowna last July 4. She died in hospital later that day due to her injuries. Her former partner, James Plover, who was released pending sentencing for assault a few hours before McCourt’s killing, is charged with the crime.
The Crown initially charged him with second-degree murder, but upgraded this to first-degree on Nov. 25.
The bill would also criminalize coercive control, prohibit the distribution of non-consensual intimate images and strengthen penalties for sexual crimes, while also providing new guidance to avoid delays at trial so cases don’t run afoul of the “Jordan” guidelines and get dismissed for taking too long.
It also restores mandatory minimum sentencing that the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down as unconstitutional.
“We’re moving forward with a strategy that will not only restore those penalties that have been struck down, but that will protect the remaining mandatory minimums that have not yet been struck down,” Justice Minister Sean Fraser said in Ottawa on Tuesday.
All of this is in addition to previously announced changes to the bail system that make it harder for violent and repeat offenders to get bail.
Still, not all of the changes sought by the McCourt family are included in this bill. Missing are requirements for a domestic violence registry and GPS monitoring for high-risk individuals. The federal Conservatives have also introduced a version of Bailey’s Law as a private member’s bill.
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma called the justice reforms “historic,” saying it was clear that more needed to be done to protect survivors of intimate partner violence.
She also said it is clear that a perpetrator of intimate partner violence should not get a more lenient sentence by arguing that a case was not premeditated. The rules deeming abuse-related killing as first-degree murder will change this.
“A record of abuse should be considered evidence of premeditation,” Sharma said. “This is a key step in ensuring families of victims receive the justice they deserve.”
As B.C. monitors the effectiveness of all of these changes, she said the province is working to establish a guidance framework for legal responses to intimate partner and sexual violence, create an internal mechanism to track reforms, and create consistent risk assessments to prevent repeat violent offences.
This last piece includes potential changes to safety planning in both criminal and family courts.
“I don’t want to minimize the work ahead of us,” Sharma said. “We are far from being where we need to be.”