The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized intimate partner violence as a distinct legal basis for pursuing civil damages.
The top court's ruling Friday came in the case of a woman who was subjected to physical and emotional abuse by her husband during a 16-year marriage.
"Intimate partner violence is a social ill and a deep affront to one's dignity," Justice Nicholas Kasirer wrote on behalf of a majority of the court.
The court said the torts of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress — existing legal avenues for seeking financial damages — fail to remedy the specific harms to dignity, autonomy and equality that intimate partner violence creates.
The judgment said this form of violence is not limited to threats to physical or psychological integrity but also includes abusive behaviour by one partner meant to coerce and control the other, effectively depriving them of their autonomy.
It said this behaviour could involve egregious acts of physical and psychological violence, as well as tactics of isolation, manipulation, humiliation, surveillance, economic abuse, sexual coercion and intimidation.
The new tort of intimate partner violence is not simply an aggregate of wrongful conduct already remedied by various existing torts, Kasirer wrote.
"While some of the conduct captured by the new tort may overlap with existing torts, coercive intimate partner violence generally includes and extends beyond discrete acts of physical and psychological abuse," he said.
"None of the existing torts consider whether the alleged wrongful conduct coerces or controls the victim, nor are they designed to compensate the victim for the distinct injury to their intangible interests in dignity, autonomy, and equality within an intimate relationship."
The Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, an intervener in the case, applauded the top court's decision.
"We are extremely pleased that the Supreme Court has recognized the unique harms and financial burdens faced by survivors of intimate partner violence," Kat Owens, the organization's legal director, said in a media statement.
"The new tort of intimate partner violence says that yes, these harms are real, and yes, they merit compensation."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2026.
