Remarks to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (LCJC) Bill C 14 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the YCJA and the NDA (Bail and Sentencing)

Honourable Chairperson and Senators,

We are on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people. Over the past year, I have often heard that we cannot have reconciliation without truth, and we cannot have justice in a system that excludes Indigenous women’s voices.

My focus today is on compliance with the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (CVBR). I appreciated how this committee examined the CVBR during your study of the Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission, and I highlighted your approach in our 10‑year CVBR progress report.

I support the objective of Bill C‑14, and I do not want to slow a bill vital to public safety. I do want to raise issues that would be valuable to capture in formal observations to guide future reforms.

My Office hears from victims and survivors across Canada, every day. Their message is remarkably consistent: They want to be safe. They want to be heard. And they want to be included in decisions that affect their safety.

Just this week, a service provider told me she has often been on the phone with survivors while the accused—released on bail without any notice—was already at their front door, banging to get inside.

For many survivors, the bail stage is one of the highest‑risk moments. Yet too many report not being notified when hearings occur, when the accused is released, or where to turn for help when bail conditions are breached—particularly outside working hours.

When a woman is violently assaulted, the Criminal Code requires judges to consider her safety when deciding bail, and courts can impose protective conditions. But she herself has no standing in the process: she cannot make submissions if proposed release conditions put her at risk, and she cannot seek a review of decisions that may determine whether she lives or dies.

This is not an information gap; it is a safety gap. Victims cannot protect themselves when decisions are made about their safety without their knowledge.

This year, our Office published Rethinking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence, the result of an 18‑month national systemic investigation involving thousands of participants. In a survey of 1,000 survivors, less than half whose cases resulted in charges believed police or Crown took their safety seriously. Among survivors sexually assaulted by an intimate partner, fewer than 1 in 4 felt they had the information they needed from police or Crown.

More tangibly, Dr. Myrna Dawson, Director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, shared that:

• From 2018 to 2025, at least 52 women and girls were killed while a protection order was in place or the accused was on bail
• 79% of accused were former intimate partners
• Of those with known histories, 54% had prior domestic‑violence convictions

Additionally:

• Survivors report that Gladue factors, while essential, are not always accompanied by equal consideration of the safety of Indigenous women, consistent with the findings of the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+
• Survivors in small and remote communities have limited protection options when an accused person is released
• Conflicting orders between criminal and family courts compromise survivor safety
• And across jurisdictions, we still lack consistent national data on how often victims are notified about bail, how often their safety concerns are considered, or how breaches affect outcomes. Without data, we cannot evaluate risk—or prevention—with accuracy.

If we want to prevent femicide in Canada, we need to centre survivor safety and survivor voice in how we design and administer bail. We cannot make consequential policy decisions with only half the picture.

These are gaps that may extend beyond the scope of Bill C-14, but they are important to capture in the record and can inform ongoing legislative work on victims’ rights.

Recommendations

1. Protect victims by providing information. Parliament should ensure that victims have a legal right to proactive notification of bail hearings, release decisions, conditions, and how to report breaches.

2. Report on victim safety. The committee could make a formal observation that the annual report on judicial interim release (s. 58.1) should include data relevant to the information, protection, and participation rights of victims, as required under the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.