‘Let’s do the right thing’: Poilievre calls on all parties to pass Conservative MP’s domestic violence bill

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre denounces the ‘Liberal crime wave’ and introduces a bill to crack down on intimate partner violence.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre – backed by family members of a mother allegedly murdered by her estranged husband – is calling on MPs from all parties to fast-track a private member’s bill proposing tougher penalties for intimate partner violence.

“We want to work with any party to get this bill passed, protect people. We encourage every party to join with us. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. Let’s do the right thing,” Poilievre told reporters on Parliament Hill on Tuesday.

The bill in question was tabled last month by Conservative MP and former Crown prosecutor Frank Caputo. It proposes to amend the Criminal Code to treat the murder of a current or former intimate partner as first-degree murder, create specific intimate partner violence offences and make it harder for those convicted of these crimes to be released from custody.

The official Opposition will be asking the Liberal government to advance a motion of unanimous consent to expedite the legislation through Parliament “in the coming days,” and have said they’d be open to “common sense amendments.”

“The government has the ability to get this bill through the House of Commons and to the Senate in a matter of weeks, if not days. We believe that the government should be dealing with this right away,” Caputo said Tuesday. “This bill is completely non-partisan.”

‘Could be one of your family members’

Caputo has coined the proposed legislation, Bill C-225, as “Bailey’s Law” in honour of Bailey McCourt, a 32-year-old mom of two daughters who died after allegedly being attacked with a hammer in broad daylight in a Kelowna, B.C. parking lot last July.

Her ex-partner James Plover – now charged with second-degree murder – had just hours earlier been released from custody pending sentencing, after being convicted of domestic violence charges.

“This could have been prevented. If Mr. Plover had been in jail where he belonged, she would still be alive today,” Poilievre said, speaking alongside a handful of Conservative MPs, including Caputo, as well as McCourt’s family members Debbie Henderson and Trish McCourt.

“We’re tired of seeing it in the news. We have been counting every day since Bailey was murdered, and watching and seeing the number of women murdered, and we are demanding change. There’s no need to wait,” said Henderson.

Calling on Canadians to write to their members of Parliament to ask they support the bill, Henderson cautioned that this could happen to anyone’s family.

“And we don’t want to see any other family member go through the horror that our family has gone through.”

Liberals vow more coming

Caputo said his legislation “goes well beyond” the provisions in the government’s recently tabled Bill C-14, the “Bail and Sentencing Reform Act.” The Conservatives have yet to say whether they’ll be supporting that legislation.

These calls for all-party cooperation came after Poilievre – during the same press conference –accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of doing “nothing” to address crime since taking office and calling statistics about intimate partner violence a “direct result” of previous Liberal bail policies.

“There are countless who have lost their lives, because Liberal laws have turned their perpetrators loose on our streets,” Poilievre said.

Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser, speaking alongside B.C. Premier David Eby – who supports the private member’s bill – said Monday that the Liberal government plans to make good on its election promise to table its own legislation addressing intimate partner violence “this fall.”

Caputo said he will be talking to Fraser tomorrow, and hopes a “productive conversation” ends in the Liberals getting behind “Bailey’s Law.”

“When you have an NDP premier supporting a Conservative private member’s bill, we know we’re on the right track,” the Conservative MP said.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson