Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will toughen the penalties for intimate partner violence if his party forms government after this election.
Poilievre took his campaign to Trois-Rivières, Que., Friday where he was joined by a number of women who are survivors of intimate partner violence.
He thanked two of the advocates for sharing their stories at the news conference.
A Conservative government is pledging to create a new criminal offence of assaulting an intimate partner, and pass a law to require the strictest possible bail conditions for anyone accused of intimate partner violence.
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That would include, Poilievre says, GPS ankle bracelet monitoring for those who are allowed out on bail.
The Conservatives are also pledging that the murder of an intimate partner or a child would be treated as first-degree murder.
The Liberals and the NDP have not yet unveiled a specific plan for tackling intimate partner violence in this federal election campaign.
New Democrat candidate Lauren Collins, who is seeking re-election in the B.C. riding of Victoria, brought forward a private member’s bill in Parliament in 2023 to criminalize coercive behaviour.
Bill C—332, which aims to amend the Criminal Code, criminalizing conduct that uses, attempts to use or threatens to “use violence against certain persons, coercing or attempting to coerce the intimate partner to engage in sexual activity,” passed its final reading in the House of Commons after a unanimous vote in June 2024.
Meanwhile, the Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau has also taken steps to tackle crime and intimate partner violence, most recently barring individuals who are convicted of an offence in which violence was used, threatened or attempted against their intimate partner or any member of their family from getting a firearm licence. That policy came into effect Friday.
The Liberals also implemented a National Action Plan to address gender-based violence in November 2022.
— with files from Global News
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