C-225 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code – creates a series of new crimes around abusing an intimate partner.
First up is murder of an intimate partner. Frank wants this to always count as first degree murder, regardless of any advanced planning or intent.
Second is a whole lot of nothing. Frank wants to create new offenses you can be charged under for crimes like intimidation and assault against an intimate partner. I really don’t know why this is necessary. Committing a crime against an intimate partner is already an aggravating factor, so the punishment will be more severe. He increases the punishment for a few of these but there’s already measures in the Criminal Code that increase the maximum penalty for violent crimes when the victim is an intimate partner, so most of these increases don’t do anything either. The only one that seems to change is threatening bodily harm to an intimate partner. Frank wants to set the punishment there to 10 years in prison. If these new offenses are still affected by the increased maximum penalty that already exists (I’m not sure they would be) it would be boosted to 14 years instead. If they aren’t affected by those increases then the maximum sentence is already 10 years.
Moving on to some actual changes C-225 changes some things around the seizure of property during a criminal investigation. Note that this applies to all investigations, not just ones involving an intimate partner. Currently anything seized can only be held for 3 months, though applications can be filled for a longer period. To get one of these extensions you need to be able to give a date for when the extension will end. Frank wants to increase the base time period to 1 year instead of 3 months with a maximum length of 2 years. Normally the accused will be informed of any seizure and they’ll have the option to argue against it. Frank wants to give the courts the option to not inform people their property has been seized if they think it’ll jeopardize the investigation for the accused to know about it.
Under C-225 are some changes to bail and crimes involving an intimate partner. Someone charged with one of these crimes will be denied bail if they had been convicted of a crime against an intimate partner within the last 5 years or if they were already on bail for one of these crimes.
Finally, if someone is out on bail for a charge that involved violence against an intimate partner, the courts will be able to call that person in for a risk of reoffending assessment. Depending on the result of that assessment they can then cancel the person’s bail and hold them in custody until their court date.
Progress of C-225
C-225 is currently waiting for its Second Reading vote.
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