C-16
Royal assent received
House Government Bill
An Act to amend certain Acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters (child protection, gender-based violence, delays and other measures)
Short title: Protecting Victims Act
Sponsor: Sean Fraser, Minister of Justice (Central Nova)
Proposed changes
On 9 December 2025, the Minister of Justice introduced Bill C-16, An Act to amend certain Acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters (child protection, gender-based violence, delays and other measures) (Protecting Victims Act) in the House of Commons and it was given first reading.
Bill C-16 amends various Acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters.
It amends the Criminal Code to, among other things,
- create a new offence that prohibits engaging in a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct toward an intimate partner;
- provide that, in the following circumstances, murder — known as femicide when committed against a female person — is murder in the first degree:
- the murder is committed against an intimate partner in the context of a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct,
- the murder is committed in the context of sexual violence,
- the murder is committed in the context of human trafficking, or
- the murder is motivated by hate;
- provide that, if an offender commits manslaughter in those circumstances, the court must consider whether to impose a sentence of imprisonment for life on the offender and, if that sentence is imposed, an adult offender is ineligible for parole for 10 to 25 years;
- remove from the criminal harassment offence the requirement to prove that the victim subjectively feared for their safety and replace it with a requirement to prove that the harassing conduct could reasonably be expected to cause the victim to believe that someone’s safety is threatened;
- amend the offence of non-consensual distribution of an intimate image to include, among such images, a visual representation showing an identifiable person depicted as nude, as exposing their sexual organs or as engaged in explicit sexual activity, if the depiction is likely to be mistaken for a visual recording of that person;
- amend certain existing child sexual offences to include prohibiting a person from inviting a child to expose their own sexual organs for a sexual purpose;
- criminalize the distribution of visual representations of bestiality;
- create a new offence relating to the recruitment of a person under 18 years of age to be a party to an offence;
- provide that victims of certain offences, such as offences in the commission of which violence was used, threatened or attempted against an intimate partner, are entitled to testimonial aids;
- permit courts to order that an offender serve a period of imprisonment below a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment, but only if the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment would amount to cruel and unusual punishment for that particular offender;
- create a new Part establishing a framework for applying alternative measures and restorative justice processes in appropriate cases;
- create a new Part in respect of unreasonable delay that requires a court to consider specific factors in relation to case complexity, directs a court to exclude time periods in respect of specific applications and requires that a stay of proceedings be ordered only if a court is satisfied, taking into account a list of factors, that no other remedy would be appropriate and just;
- streamline and strengthen the procedural rules in sexual offence trials that govern when evidence of a complainant’s past sexual activity can be adduced and when certain private records, including therapeutic records, can be produced or adduced; and
- allow the possibility of using affidavit evidence for certain cases involving identity theft and identity fraud.
The enactment also makes consequential amendments to other Acts.
The enactment also amends the Youth Criminal Justice Act to, among other things,
- ensure that it better reflects the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights with respect to the rights and interests of victims;
- modernize the principle requiring consideration of the needs of young persons, including by requiring particular attention to those of Aboriginal and Black young persons; and
- allow youth justice courts to order that a young person enter into a recognizance if there is a reasonable fear that the young person will commit a child sexual offence.
This is shortened to the first five points. The bill itself covers more.