Bill C-16 Ignores the Coercive Control of too Many Older Victims
Canada is moving to join England & Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Australia in criminalizing coercive control by an intimate partner. On December 9, 2025, the federal government tabled Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act, which would make it a criminal offence for an abusive spouse to engage in a pattern of non‑physical coercive behaviour to dominate their partner. However, if that same behaviour were carried out by a relative or an adult child against their parent, it would fall outside the Criminal Code.
While Bill C‑16 represents progress, it overlooks one of the most common and harmful forms of elder abuse: coercive control by family members or caregivers. This exclusion risks leaving many older adults without legal protection simply because the perpetrator is not an intimate partner.
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviour that isolates, intimidates, and manipulates, gradually stripping away a person’s autonomy. Although intimate partners are recognized as potential perpetrators, adult children and others in positions of trust and caregiving can often engage in coercive control. Thus, limiting the offence to intimate partners risks repeating a familiar mistake in law reform: protecting the “typical” victim while overlooking other vulnerable groups.
As currently conceived, Bill C-16 creates a gap that exposes the new offence to challenge under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Older victims whose vulnerability stems from cognitive decline or functional and financial dependence would be left without meaningful recourse.
By denying older adults abused by relatives or caregivers the same protection afforded to intimate partners, Parliament risks creating a two‑tier system of justice. This differential treatment is difficult to justify, especially given Canada’s obligations under Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which protects individuals with disabilities from abuse and exploitation, including when it occurs within the home. If the government chooses to draw the line here, it must be prepared to justify why many older victims should be left outside the law’s protection.
The central purpose of criminalizing coercive control is to provide early intervention. That rationale applies equally to older persons who may be isolated, dependent and easily removed from public view. Many older adults are reluctant to report abuse, are not believed when they do, or cannot leave due to cognitive or physical frailty or financial dependence. Their abuse can lead to social isolation, financial ruin, premature institutionalization or homelessness. Yet, Bill C-16 leaves these victims unprotected.
Bill C-16’s narrow scope also reflects broader gaps in Canada’s approach to protecting older adults. In the absence of a dedicated international human rights convention affirming the rights of older persons to live free from abuse and exploitation, protections remain fragmented and inconsistent. This leaves too many older victims exposed to mistreatment from within families.
Ageism exacerbates this vulnerability. Older adults are too often perceived to acquiesce to abuse or viewed as less deserving of legal protection. Such assumptions allow coercive control to be overlooked or dismissed when, in fact, it is a serious form of abuse. Addressing these biases is essential to ensuring that coercive control against older adults is recognized and treated with the same seriousness as other forms of domestic abuse.
The solution is both simple and consistent with the bill’s purpose. Parliament can amend the definition of covered relationships to extend protection to older adults experiencing coercive control from their adult children and relatives. Doing so would not dilute the offence; it would strengthen it by ensuring the law captures serious, patterned abuse rooted in power imbalances and dependence that go beyond the role of intimate partners.
On February 4, 2026, the Elder Justice Coalition will present these concerns to federal lawmakers, sharing lived experiences of older adults affected by coercive control and emphasizing the need to close the equality gap in Bill C-16.
Parliament has an opportunity to craft legislation that protects everyone who needs it. Extending the offence to cover adult children and relatives would uphold the law’s core intent and affirm that protecting older adults from coercive control is essential.