B.C. announces new measures to combat intimate partner violence

By Canadian Press on December 9, 2025.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s attorney general has announced new provincial measures aimed at combating intimate partner violence, while calling newly tabled federal legislation “a step toward justice.”

Nikki Sharma says the province will be establishing a comprehensive provincial framework policy to provide guidance to all those within the justice system.

She says B.C. will also be creating an “internal government accountability mechanism to monitor the implementation” of reforms.

Sharma says the province has heard from advocates who have expressed the need for “consistent risk assessments” across the legal system to protect survivors from further violence, and government will move quickly on standardizing those assessments.

The changes come less than two months after B.C. announced stricter bail for those accused or convicted of sexual violence, but Sharma now says it has become clear that more was needed to be done.

Her announcement on Tuesday comes as the federal government tabled legislation that includes classifying femicide — including cases relating to an intimate partner — as first-degree murder.

“Not only is intimate partner violence among the most serious of crimes a person can commit, but if a pattern of sexual violence, control and abuse cumulates in murder, the perpetrator cannot get away with a more lenient punishment by arguing the murder itself was not planned or premeditated. A record of abuse should be considered evidence of premeditation,” she told the conference.

“This is a key step in ensuring families of victims receive the justice they deserve.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2025.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press