Thank you for inviting us to speak to you.

I'm joined today by Élyse Joyal‑Pilon, a lawyer at Rebâtir. She works in management and serves as a resource person in matters of safety for victims.

My name is Marie‑Claude Richer. I'm a lawyer and director of Rebâtir, which was established on September 21, 2021. Rebâtir's mandate is to provide four hours of free legal consultation to any victim of domestic and sexual violence, anywhere in Quebec, in any field of law. In three years, we've provided over 67,000 legal consultations to more than 16,000 victims.

For 47 years, I was a friend of Lisette Corbeil, the victim of a femicide in 2021. This fatal act was the first act of physical violence committed against her. However, she had been a victim of coercive control for a number of years.

Today, we want to emphasize the urgent need for Canada to recognize coercive control as a criminal act. In addition to acting as a deterrent, this recognition would enable police officers and prosecutors to show evidence in court of ongoing deprivation of liberty. Judges would then have a more accurate view of the situation and would have the chance to make informed decisions. They currently can't do so, since they have only a snapshot of a film that has often been running for a long time.

The justice system currently lacks all the tools needed to protect victims and their children.

We urge the committee to recommend the following amendments to the Criminal Code.

First, we recommend that all murders of intimate partners, including femicides, be deemed first degree murder, along the same lines as the murders of police officers in the line of duty. This would remove the onus on the prosecutor to prove premeditation. The minimum sentence for first degree murder is life imprisonment.

To better protect victims who have the courage to come forward, a paragraph should be added to section 495.1 of the Criminal Code, which covers the powers of police officers in the event of a breach of conditions. The addition would specify that, in cases of intimate partner violence, police officers would have the obligation—and not just the power—to proceed with the arrest of the accused without a warrant.

Section 515 of the Criminal Code should also be amended to require the court to give reasons for refusing to order the accused to wear an electronic monitoring device if the prosecutor makes the request.

Lastly, the prosecutor should be reminded of the need to request, at the release investigation stage, an assessment of the risk posed by the accused in cases involving homicidal risk factors such as strangulation, death threats, suicidal statements and non‑compliance with both civil and criminal court orders.

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