Bill expanding intimate-partner murder charges becomes federal law

Bill C-225 received royal assent on Tuesday, updating the Criminal Code to allow prosecutors to charge first-degree murder in cases of intimate-partner homicide, even without proof of premeditation.

The legislation, named Bailey's Law after B.C. woman Bailey McCourt who was killed by a former partner in 2024, expands the definition of first-degree murder to include killings that occur as part of a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct. It also creates a specific offence for intimate-partner violence to help track such incidents in Canada's justice system.

Conservative MP Frank Caputo put forward the private member's bill, a rare legislative vehicle in Parliament where such proposals rarely advance to law. The change responds to cases like McCourt's, where she was killed in a daylight parking-lot attack in Kelowna hours after her alleged killer was released on bail, despite a history of controlling behavior.