Poilievre Pledges Tougher Sentencing for Intimate Partner Violence
Poilievre promises strictest possible conditions for anyone accused of intimate partner violence and strengthened jail time for abusers.
Trois-Rivières, QC – Today, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his plan to address the epidemic of intimate partner violence. Poilievre will keep abusers off the street and behind bars to protect the most vulnerable Canadians.
Specifically, a new Conservative government will:
- Create a new offence of “assault of an intimate partner” to deliver tougher sentences for anyone who abuses an intimate partner.
- Require the strictest bail conditions for anyone accused of intimate partner violence, including GPS ankle bracelet monitoring, with any breach of conditions resulting in immediate imprisonment.
- End the senseless practice of downgrading the murder of an intimate partner to manslaughter, simply because the murderer claims it was a so-called “crime of passion”. A Conservative government will make sure that the murder of an intimate partner, one’s own child, or a partner’s child will be treated as first-degree murder.
“Government has failed the most vulnerable Canadians,” said Poilievre. “Those who abuse their partners or their children should be off the streets and behind bars where they can’t harm their victims or anyone else. A new Conservative Government will make sure our justice system always puts victims, not criminals, first.”
Every two and a half days, a woman is murdered in Canada and in over half of these cases, the murderer is their partner. In 2023 alone, 123,319 people aged 12 and older reported intimate partner violence to police. It wasn’t always like this. From 2009 to 2014, family violence and intimate partner violence were on the decline, with 2014 marking the lowest rate ever recorded in Canada.
Since 2015, Canada has witnessed a violent crime wave. Family and intimate partner violence is up 19 percent while sexual assaults and sexual violations against children are up 75 percent and 119 percent, respectively.
The problem is made worse by soft-on-crime, catch-and-release laws, which let violent offenders back into our communities to offend again. This has tipped the scales of justice in favour of criminals instead of their victims and law-abiding Canadians with disastrous results.
“A new Conservative Government will lock up violent abusers so they cannot hurt their victims or anyone else,” said Poilievre. “We will restore the safe country we know and love, where women, children and all Canadians are free to live out their full potential in a Canada that protects their peace and security. We will put Canada First—for a change.”