Bill protecting intimate partner violence victims becomes federal law
Bailey's Law allows first-degree murder charges for killings that occur as part of a pattern of coercive conduct, regardless of premeditation.
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The Criminal Code will soon be updated to allow for a charge of first-degree murder against the killer of an intimate partner, regardless of whether the act was premeditated.
Bill C-225, which received royal assent in Parliament today, amends the Criminal Code to make first-degree murder applicable to killings that happen as part of a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct. The law also helps track incidents of intimate partner violence in Canada's justice system by creating a specific offence for such attacks.
The legislation is named Bailey's Law after Bailey McCourt, a 32-year-old B.C. woman who was killed last year. Her alleged killer was a former partner who was released on bail hours before the daylight attack in a Kelowna parking lot.
Conservative MP Frank Caputo put forward the private member's bill, a type of legislation that rarely passes into law.