Bill C-273, the latest effort to outlaw physical abuse of children, has died following prorogation. It had been progressing for two years, waiting for third reading. The full text of the bill:
BILL C-273
An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Corinne’s Quest and the protection of children)
His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
R.S., c. C-46
Criminal Code
1. Section 43 of the Criminal Code is repealed.
Coming into Force
2. This Act comes into force on the 30th day after the day on which it receives royal assent.
Section 43 is an exception introduced in the law in 1892 that allowed the physical abuse children, at a time where men beating wives was normalized. This was fifty years before this article was published:
Attitudes have shifted, but only partially. An abuser hitting their wife to let off some steam? That’s now illegal. Hitting a dog? Illegal. Venting by hitting a child? That’s illegal in 74 countries from Argentina to Kenya, France to Japan. But not in Canada. In Canada it’s perfectly permissible as long as the abuser gives the defence that it was to correct the child.
The Supreme Court added a few more parameters in 2004; hitting the head was off-limits now as was beating the child with an object like a bat or belt. You know, boxing rules. Also the abuser had to wait until a child was at least two before they could smack them around.
This isn’t enough. It’s not just that courts can’t see inside a perpetrator’s head to determine whether it’s a “good” motive to hit, it’s that there is no good hitting to begin with.
I already shared my own story. Anecdotes aside, the science on its harms has been unambiguous for decades. But it shouldn’t take science to state what ought to be obvious: hitting a partner is bad for their well-being and mental health, and so too is it for a child that doesn’t have the tools to cope or means to escape.
Even though the Liberals promised to pass the Truth and Reconciliation Commission call to actions in 2015, and repealing section 43 was the sixth of these actions, in the decade that followed the Liberals never introduced a government bill for this. It was always introduced as a private members bill or in the Senate, severely constraining its chances of becoming law.
It’s my belief that the Liberal party does not want to introduce a government bill as it might alienate child abusers who might otherwise vote conservative.
So C-273 joins a long list of other failed bills introduced to repeal 43:
- Bill C-235, 1989 (Svend Robinson, NDP)
- Bill C-245, 1991 (Svend Robinson, NDP)
- Bill C-296, 1994 (Svend Robinson, NDP)
- Bill C-305, 1996 (Svend Robinson, NDP)
- Bill S-14, 1996 (Sharon Carstairs)
- Bill C-276, 1997 (Libby Davies, NDP)
- Bill C-368, 1998 (Tony Ianno, Liberal)
- Bill C-273, 1999 (Libby Davies, NDP)
- Bill C-329, 2001 (Libby Davies, NDP)
- Bill S-21, 2004 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-207, 2006 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-209, 2007 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-204, 2010 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-206, 2013 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-206, 2015 (Céline Hervieux-Payette)
- Bill S-251, 2021 (Stanley Kutcher)
I don’t know when the Liberals will change their approach. Maybe when society will have shifted enough that the repeal will be inconsequential, to the detriment of children currently being abused around Canada.
Maybe when they’re out of power they’ll make the same promise they did in 2015.