Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Thank you very much for your speech on Bill C-233, Senator Dalphond. I am very pleased to learn that the plan is to include training for judges on domestic violence.

I think that attitudes have changed here and in committee, because when we examined Bill C-3, I proposed an amendment to include training on domestic violence in the training for judges on sexual exploitation.

Will the bill before us ensure that this control mechanism is applied only to abusers who are awaiting trial?

Senator Dalphond: Thank you for the question, Senator Boisvenu. I knew you’d be pleased with this bill since it deals with a topic that is very important to you. At the time, you proposed at third reading stage that we amend the bill to add this element and the chamber thought it best to adopt Bill C-3 instead of sending it back to the other place because of the time at which it was adopted. You will recall that an election was called a few months later. That was perhaps the right decision in that context.

That being said, you were right to say that it would have been better to add these elements to the training. I’d be pleased to add that to the bill, as the other place suggests.

It’s true that the bill proposes only to amend the Criminal Code with respect to release orders during the trial, also known as bail orders.

Bill S-205 also includes other provisions and amendments to the Criminal Code that would apply in other contexts, including amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, that would apply when the person has served their sentence and are part of the transition and conditional release.

Senator Boisvenu: I think it’s really inefficient to have two bills with the same objective, to protect women, making their way through the Senate at the same time. The government is going to end up in a situation where it has to choose between the two.

In 85% of femicide cases, the aggressor wasn’t brought to trial. Rather than a trial, the aggressor is ordered not to approach his victim, and 85% of victims are murdered in that context. Why not immediately combine these two bills to ensure that we’re protecting the women who are truly in danger? I’m not talking about those whose aggressor will be brought to trial, but those whose aggressor will never be formally charged because he signed an order. Those are the cases where women get murdered, not when the individual is brought to trial.

Senator Dalphond: I know that politics is the art of the possible and that sometimes we must be pragmatic.

This bill comes to us from the House of Commons, where it received the unanimous support of members. We’ve been asked to consider it carefully and, if we support it, to pass it. As I stated in my speech, this doesn’t at all prevent the Senate from going further and passing your bill, which contains other measures, which will then be retained at third reading stage and sent to the House of Commons, where it could be adopted in future.

The bill we received is along the lines of what you’re proposing, but consists of two important steps. I will repeat that it’s not the end of the process, but represents two small steps that won’t put an end to domestic violence or intimate partner violence. They are two small, useful steps in a vehicle arriving from the House of Commons with unanimous support. I believe that we should seize this vehicle and deal with this bill as quickly as possible to ensure that these two small steps are taken. We must continue to study your bill and hope that the House of Commons will adopt it as well.

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