Chamber
senate
Stage
3rd Reading
Introduced
Dec 2, 2025
Progress
This bill requires the federal Minister for Women and Gender Equality to lead and report on ongoing national efforts to prevent intimate partner violence.
Key Changes
- Makes it a legal requirement for the Minister for Women and Gender Equality to lead national action on preventing intimate partner violence
- Requires annual engagement with federal and provincial ministers responsible for the status of women
- Requires regular engagement with Indigenous partners, victims, survivors, and stakeholders
- Mandates a progress report to Parliament every two years
- Requires public posting of the report on the departmental website within 30 days of tabling
- Defines 'intimate partner' to include current and former spouses, common-law partners, and dating partners
Gotchas
- The bill does not allocate specific funding or create new programs — it formalizes coordination and reporting obligations that may already exist informally
- Engagements with Indigenous partners are required 'regularly' rather than annually, which is a less specific standard than the annual requirement for ministerial meetings
- The bill requires action to 'continue,' implying existing efforts must be maintained, but does not define a minimum standard for what those efforts must include
- Enforcement mechanisms are not specified — there is no penalty if the Minister fails to meet the reporting or engagement deadlines
- Intimate partner violence is an area of shared federal-provincial jurisdiction, and the bill acknowledges this by requiring engagement on constitutional and jurisdictional implications
Who's Affected
- Victims and survivors of intimate partner violence
- Indigenous communities and partners
- Federal and provincial governments, particularly ministers responsible for women and gender equality
- Organizations and stakeholders working in the area of gender-based violence
- The general Canadian public through increased government accountability
Vibes
0 responses
Gotchas
- The bill does not allocate specific funding or create new programs — it formalizes coordination and reporting obligations that may already exist informally
- Engagements with Indigenous partners are required 'regularly' rather than annually, which is a less specific standard than the annual requirement for ministerial meetings
- The bill requires action to 'continue,' implying existing efforts must be maintained, but does not define a minimum standard for what those efforts must include
- Enforcement mechanisms are not specified — there is no penalty if the Minister fails to meet the reporting or engagement deadlines
- Intimate partner violence is an area of shared federal-provincial jurisdiction, and the bill acknowledges this by requiring engagement on constitutional and jurisdictional implications
Summary
Georgina's Law requires the Minister for Women and Gender Equality to continue leading national action to prevent and address intimate partner violence in Canada. The Minister must meet annually with other federal and provincial ministers, and regularly with Indigenous partners, survivors, victims, and other stakeholders to review programs, partnerships, costs, and legal considerations related to this issue. The bill also requires the Minister to produce a progress report every two years and table it in both the Senate and the House of Commons. That report must then be posted publicly on the department's website within 30 days. The bill is named 'Georgina's Law,' likely in honour of a victim of intimate partner violence, and was introduced in the Senate in December 2025. The bill does not create new programs or funding directly, but formalizes and makes mandatory the government's responsibility to coordinate and report on efforts to combat intimate partner violence across Canada.
Automatically generated from bill text using Claude
Vibes
0 responses