Criminalizing coercive control is necessary, but not enough |
Coercive control rarely starts with a bruise. It begins with isolation, humiliation, surveillance and fear. By the time violence becomes visible, it has already inflicted profound harm. Across Canada, women are living under domination that leaves no outward marks but inflicts lasting harm on mind, body and spirit. Parliament now has a chance to confront this invisible but devastating reality.
Last December, the federal government introduced Bill C-16, which would amend the Criminal Code to recognize what survivors and advocates have long known: coercive control is violence in everything but name.
The invisible architecture of abuse
For decades, criminal law has focused primarily on assaults, threats, and sexual and physical violence. While this is essential, intimate partner violence — almost always against women — is rarely insular and sporadic. It has a pattern. It is cumulative. It is strategic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines intimate partner violence as behaviour by a current or former partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. This includes intimidation, controlling acts, monitoring of a woman’s movements and reproductive coercion — not only physical assault.
Research over the past two decades has shown that psychological abuse and coercive control should not be considered “less serious” forms of violence. They are often the foundation upon which physical violence builds.
Systematic reviews have linked intimate partner violence to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use and thoughts of suicide. Unintended pregnancy and miscarriage, sexually transmitted infections and low birth weight in infants often accompany such violence.
The evidence is clear: This is both a criminal justice issue and a public health crisis.
What Bill C-16 would change
Bill C-16 includes a proposal to add new language to the Criminal Code that would make it an offence to coerce........