What could Canada learn from Scotland's coercive control law?

As Canada's government looks at Scotland's first few years of criminalizing coercive control, a Scottish advocate told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning how the law works there.

Experts in Canada and around the world define coercive control as a pattern of behaviours ranging from harassment and intimidation to isolating someone from family and social supports, all with the aim of keeping the victim under the abuser's control.

Many believe such tactics can escalate to physical violence. Researchers and police have long accepted there are often early warning signs in cases of intimate partner violence.

Scotland changed its approach in 2018, enacting the new law the following year.

"There's a long list in the law which is comprehensive but not exclusive … that essentially says the things a perpetrator might do that would have the effect of reducing the freedom or safety of women and children," Scottish Women's Aid CEO Marsha Scott said on Ottawa Morning on Thursday.

Perpetrators often control the victim's access to money, friends and family, Scott said, adding that in 95 per cent of coercive control cases reported to police, the perpetrator is a man.

"It can be very mundane-seeming things that are actually really cruel and frightening if they're in the middle of a whole course of conduct that controls pretty much every bit of your life," she said.

Feds 'open' to new law

A recent letter from federal Justice Minister Arif Virani to Ontario's chief coroner outlined the Liberal government's response to a series of recommendations out of an inquest into the 2015 slayings of three women in rural Renfrew County, west of Ottawa.

One called on Ottawa to create a new offence in the Criminal Code that targets coercive control. It's not the first push to do that.

Virani's letter points to a commitment the government made in response to a 2021 report from a parliamentary committee that explored the possibility of criminalizing controlling behaviour, saying the Liberals are still "open" to creating a new offence.

He also said the government is monitoring how criminalizing coercive control is working in other jurisdictions, such as Scotland.

Scott said her organization, which says it's "the lead (organization) in Scotland working towards the prevention of domestic abuse" and runs a network of local groups, has heard from survivors that the law better addresses what was done to them, and that builds confidence in the system.

According to the BBC, about 250 people were prosecuted under the law in its first year. That grew to 420 the following year.

In May, the BBC reported on a committee report to Scotland's Parliament that called for improvements including further police training and sentencing, and pointed out one expert testified the justice process was still "unremittingly grim" for survivors.

Scottish Women's Aid would like more emphasis on children under the law, Scott said.

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