Updated October 28, 2025 @ 3:10pm
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on other parties Tuesday to support a private member's bill he said would combat intimate partner violence — just as a new report tracks how the problem has grown in recent years.
"There are countless who have lost their lives because Liberal laws have turned their perpetrators loose on our streets," Poilievre said outside the House of Commons.
"We want to work with any party to get this bill passed to protect people. We encourage every party to join with us. It doesn't matter who gets the credit — let's do the right thing now."
Poilievre's statement came after Statistics Canada released a report showing reports of intimate partner violence increased 14 per cent between 2018 and 2024. The report also notes women and girls remain overrepresented in those statistics. The number of women suffering intimate partner violence in 2024 was 3.5 times higher than the number of men.
Poilievre blamed the caseload on what he calls the federal Liberals' lax approach to criminal justice and is calling for stricter penalties.
Bill C-225, introduced by Conservative MP Frank Caputo, would automatically make the killing of an intimate partner an act of first degree murder, and bar someone arrested for an intimate partner offence from being released by a peace officer if they had been convicted of a similar offence in the previous five years.
Caputo said his bill was developed with input from victims of intimate partner violence who want to see changes to the criminal justice system.
"We believe that the government should be dealing with this right away. And if you don't want to listen to me, that's fine. But perhaps they will listen to the voice of Debbie," Caputo said, introducing Debbie Henderson, whose niece was a victim of intimate partner violence.
Henderson's niece, Bailey McCourt, was killed in July by her ex-husband.
She said she's tired of seeing similar stories in the news and is demanding change through the passage of Bill C-225.
"There's no need to wait. The next person could be you, or it could be one of your family members. And we don't want to see any other family member go through the horror that our family has gone through," she said, holding back tears.
The Statistics Canada report found nearly half of intimate partner violence victims were living with the person accused of the crime at the time of the incident.
The agency reports that most victims of intimate partner violence in 2024 were physically assaulted (72 per cent), while 9 per cent were victims of sexual offences and 7 per cent were victims of criminal harassment.
Statistics Canada says the rate of family violence against seniors has increased by 49 per cent between 2018 and last year, with 7,622 senior victims of police-reported family violence reported in 2024.
A full 36 per cent of seniors who experienced family violence last year were victimized by one of their children, the agency reports.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2025.
