When the Governor General prorogued Parliament in January of this year, most bills that had not received royal assent were terminated and must be reintroduced as if they had never existed. An exception is private member’s bills, which continue from session to session. If the bill had passed third reading in the House of Commons, it is sent again to the Senate.
This will likely be the procedural fate of Bill C-332, a private member’s bill introduced by NDP MP Laurel Collins that proposes to make coercive control by intimate partners a standalone offence in the Criminal Code, punishable by up to 10 years in prison for the most serious cases.
In June 2024, the House unanimously passed Bill C-332. At the time of prorogation, it had passed second reading in the Senate and had been referred to the legal and constitutional affairs committee for study. Its survival into the new session gives parliamentarians a chance to amend the proposed offence so it extends beyond intimate partners to include other bad actors like manipulative adult children and caregivers.
Coercive control is a pattern of abusive behaviours that seek to dominate and isolate a person, with or without the use of physical violence. An abuser’s manipulative conduct tends to escalate slowly and erode the victim’s autonomy, self-esteem and sense of safety. Coercive control can have dangerous and deadly consequences.
Tactics can be subtle, making it hard to detect and escape, especially in rural communities where victims may be socially isolated and have limited access to transportation and support services.
Other countries have recognized that coercive control is not limited to intimate partners. England and Wales, for example, criminalize coercive control by family members.
“The criminalisation of coercive control is an important step forward in securing older people’s right to access criminal justice,” said the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, an independent watchdog for elder rights.
To be sure, other countries like Scotland take a narrow approach, restricting the offence to partners and ex-partners.
With Bill C-332, it remains unclear why Canadian politicians have chosen not to protect elder abuse victims, given that coercive control is a common tactic of abusive adult children and others in relationships of trust and dependency with older adults.
Elder abusers commonly engage in behaviours that intimidate, exploit and isolate their victims, with devastating emotional, physical and financial consequences. Perpetrators might threaten violence or withhold food, water and mobility equipment to get money.
“I will throw you down the stairs, old hag!” an abusive son yells at his elderly mother with dementia, who has become fearful of his escalating demands for her bank card and PIN. “No one else cares about you,” he lies as he changes her soiled diaper. “I’m all you’ve got.”
Visits from friends and family are often blocked without lawful authority.
“Dad is sick,” a daughter lies when her father’s friends call. “The guys don’t care about you anymore,” she tells him. She also intercepts his mail and cancels the landline.
While elder abuse is a complex and sensitive topic with no easy solutions, a coercive control offence can help prosecute and punish controlling family members and caregivers.
To make this happen, lawmakers must amend Bill C-332 so it applies to elder abusers.
Heather Campbell Pope
Heather Campbell Pope is founder of Dementia Justice Canada, a small nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the rights and dignity of people with dementia.
