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| Heather Campbell Pope |
Unanimously passed by the House of Commons in June 2024 and now at second reading in the Senate, Bill C-332 would make coercive control by intimate partners a standalone offence, punishable by up to 10 years in prison for the most serious cases. The Criminal Code defines intimate partners as current or former spouses, common-law partners and dating partners.
Often invisible to those on the outside, coercive control is a pattern of violence, intimidation, isolation and manipulation that destroys a victim’s autonomy, self-esteem and sense of safety.
As a society, we should be concerned about the proposed law’s narrow scope because coercive control is a devastating tactic used by abusive adult children, who are the most common perpetrators of elder mistreatment. These abusers would escape prosecution under the new provision, as would all other perpetrators who are not intimate partners.
Controlling adult children are often motivated by personal gain. “I’ll throw you down the stairs if you don’t give me more money!” an inheritance-greedy son yells at his elderly mother.
A controlling daughter might block friends from visiting her father. “Dad is sick,” she says when they call. “Your friends don’t care about you anymore,” she lies to him.
Sometimes the abuse is excused as caregiver burden. “My sisters aren’t doing anything to help,” a frustrated brother tells himself as he withdraws more and more money from a joint account he shares with his mother, initially set up when he shopped for her groceries.
Over time, the intensity gets worse. “Transfer me the house or else I’ll put you in a nursing home!” he threatens. His frightened mother signs over the property as lawyers miss the red flags, charmed by the manipulative son who skillfully hides his selfish motives.
Dementia heightens the risk of abuse, which often worsens as care needs increase. Victims might be tied to a chair or have mittens taped to their hands to stop repetitive scratching. “It drives me nuts while watching TV,” a woman tells her concerned sibling. Abusers might also withhold prescriptions or overmedicate their victims.
While some of the abusive conduct is already captured by offences like intimidation, harassment, unlawful confinement and fraud, a coercive control offence is needed because it recognizes the cumulative effects of both criminal and otherwise lawful behaviour that together create an environment of fear, isolation and control that insidiously unfolds over time.
A coercive control offence also has the potential to prevent extreme cases of elder neglect, where perpetrators might be charged with a crime like failing to provide the necessaries of life. By prosecuting a coercive controller at an earlier stage of worsening abuse, victims can be removed from harmful relationships before they become severely malnourished and bedridden in soiled clothes, with maggot-infested wounds.
To be sure, some advocates worry that a criminal justice approach can make situations worse for older victims, especially if the abusive adult child is their primary caregiver.
And since many abusive adult children are highly dependent on their parents and have mental health and addiction issues, interventions will often need to combine criminal responses with health, housing and social services to support both the victim and perpetrator.
Among foreign jurisdictions that have criminalized coercive control, several use categories beyond intimate partners. For example, England and Wales created an offence of coercive and controlling behaviour in an intimate or family relationship; Hawaii has made coercive control over a family or household member a petty misdemeanour; and in Australia, Queensland’s forthcoming law will apply to domestic relationships, defined broadly as intimate personal relationships, family relationships and informal care relationships.
New South Wales limits its offence to intimate partners, though the state’s attorney general said that the government might consider expanding the scope in the future.
Canadians should be asking their MPs why they excluded familial elder abuse from Bill C-332. When introduced in May 2023 by Victoria NDP MP Laurel Collins, the proposed law included a broader scope of perpetrators. It would have covered categories of persons like abusive adult children who live with their elderly parent, though this scope was also too restrictive because perpetrators do not always reside with their victims nor are they always family members.
But after the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights studied the bill, it reported back to the House with a significantly amended bill that was limited to intimate partners.
In many ways, it is unsurprising that Bill C-332 was narrowed to intimate partners, given that the debate around criminalizing coercive control has predominately focused on domestic abuse. Faced with grave domestic violence cases, in which women and children are killed, MPs can be forgiven for having a singular focus, supporting an amended bill that targets such evil.
But elder abuse victims deserve legal protection too.
While momentum is shifting, the mistreatment of seniors is too often dismissed as a civil matter to be remedied privately or is considered too challenging to prosecute because of the older victim’s incapacity or unwillingness to testify. But elder abuse is a crime against society, not just the individual, and it must be punished as such.
By strengthening Bill C-332 in ways that address familial elder abuse, Parliament can send a clear message to controlling adult children and other relatives that their harmful behaviour against seniors will not be tolerated.
Heather Campbell Pope (LLB, LLM) is founder of Dementia Justice Canada.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
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