Close the family gap in Canada's coercive control law
The Issue
On June 18, 2026, Canada made coercive control a crime. Section 264.01 of the Criminal Code now covers isolating someone from friends and family, monitoring their movements, and controlling their money, their job, and their education. Up to ten years in prison.
It only applies if the person doing it is your partner.
If it's your parent, none of it is a crime.
Right now in Canada, a parent can refuse to let their child learn to drive. Keep them from working. Hold their identification. Keep them from having any money of their own. Keep them from having friends or relationships. Keep them in a remote place with no transportation, so no job is close enough to reach and no wage covers the cost of getting there.
Do that for eighteen years and none of it is illegal, because no single piece of it is a crime by itself. That is exactly why Parliament made coercive control a pattern offence. They just decided the pattern only counts between romantic partners.
WHAT IT DOES TO A PERSON
By the time you're an adult you have no licence, no vehicle, no work history, no savings, no credit, and no references. You can't make rent because you've never made money. You can't make money because you were never allowed to work. You can't get to work because you were never allowed to drive.
So there are two exits and they're both bad. Stay, and stay dependent on the person who did it. Or leave with nothing, which is homelessness, because leaving with nothing is what homelessness is.
People in this position get described afterward as having chosen to stay. Nobody chose. They were priced out of leaving before they were old enough to understand what was happening.
BRITAIN ALREADY FIXED THIS
In England and Wales the same offence covers people who are "personally connected," and the law spells out that this includes parents and children. Since 2023 they don't even have to live together. A parent coercively controlling their adult child is a crime there.
Canada copied the British law and then made it narrower than the original.
IT WAS TAKEN OUT ON PURPOSE
The first version of this bill, C-332 in 2023, did cover relatives. On March 18, 2024, at the Justice committee, that was deleted on a 6 to 5 vote and the offence was narrowed to intimate partners.
When the final bill came through this spring, elder advocacy groups asked for family members to be put back in. No MP moved the amendment. Senator Paul Prosper moved it in the Senate on June 16 and lost it on a voice vote with no names recorded.
Parliament's answer was to promise a review in five years.
WHY NOW
The offence doesn't come into force until June 2028. Amending a law that hasn't started yet costs almost nothing. No cases to reopen, no rules to unwind. That window is open for less than two years, and after it this waits until 2031.
WHAT WE'RE ASKING FOR
Amend section 264.01 of the Criminal Code to:
1. Apply to family members and to anyone on whom another person is dependent, regardless of age or which of them holds the power
2. Apply where the conduct starts in childhood and continues into adulthood
3. Name the deliberate denial of a person's means of independence, meaning work, education, identification, money, transportation and relationships, as coercive control
4. Move the review of this section from five years to two
Sign this, and share it.
And if you're a Canadian citizen or resident willing to help, I need five people to validate the official House of Commons e-petition before it can go live. That takes one click on an email from Parliament and your name is never published. Message me and I'll add you.
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The Issue
On June 18, 2026, Canada made coercive control a crime. Section 264.01 of the Criminal Code now covers isolating someone from friends and family, monitoring their movements, and controlling their money, their job, and their education. Up to ten years in prison.
It only applies if the person doing it is your partner.
If it's your parent, none of it is a crime.
Right now in Canada, a parent can refuse to let their child learn to drive. Keep them from working. Hold their identification. Keep them from having any money of their own. Keep them from having friends or relationships. Keep them in a remote place with no transportation, so no job is close enough to reach and no wage covers the cost of getting there.
Do that for eighteen years and none of it is illegal, because no single piece of it is a crime by itself. That is exactly why Parliament made coercive control a pattern offence. They just decided the pattern only counts between romantic partners.
WHAT IT DOES TO A PERSON
By the time you're an adult you have no licence, no vehicle, no work history, no savings, no credit, and no references. You can't make rent because you've never made money. You can't make money because you were never allowed to work. You can't get to work because you were never allowed to drive.
So there are two exits and they're both bad. Stay, and stay dependent on the person who did it. Or leave with nothing, which is homelessness, because leaving with nothing is what homelessness is.
People in this position get described afterward as having chosen to stay. Nobody chose. They were priced out of leaving before they were old enough to understand what was happening.
BRITAIN ALREADY FIXED THIS
In England and Wales the same offence covers people who are "personally connected," and the law spells out that this includes parents and children. Since 2023 they don't even have to live together. A parent coercively controlling their adult child is a crime there.
Canada copied the British law and then made it narrower than the original.
IT WAS TAKEN OUT ON PURPOSE
The first version of this bill, C-332 in 2023, did cover relatives. On March 18, 2024, at the Justice committee, that was deleted on a 6 to 5 vote and the offence was narrowed to intimate partners.
When the final bill came through this spring, elder advocacy groups asked for family members to be put back in. No MP moved the amendment. Senator Paul Prosper moved it in the Senate on June 16 and lost it on a voice vote with no names recorded.
Parliament's answer was to promise a review in five years.
WHY NOW
The offence doesn't come into force until June 2028. Amending a law that hasn't started yet costs almost nothing. No cases to reopen, no rules to unwind. That window is open for less than two years, and after it this waits until 2031.
WHAT WE'RE ASKING FOR
Amend section 264.01 of the Criminal Code to:
1. Apply to family members and to anyone on whom another person is dependent, regardless of age or which of them holds the power
2. Apply where the conduct starts in childhood and continues into adulthood
3. Name the deliberate denial of a person's means of independence, meaning work, education, identification, money, transportation and relationships, as coercive control
4. Move the review of this section from five years to two
Sign this, and share it.
And if you're a Canadian citizen or resident willing to help, I need five people to validate the official House of Commons e-petition before it can go live. That takes one click on an email from Parliament and your name is never published. Message me and I'll add you.
Petition Updates
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Petition created on August 16, 2026