It’s legislation we shouldn’t need, because Bailey McCourt should still be alive. Amid our anger and sadness at her death, and the deaths of so many women at the hands of those who are supposed to love them, there’s room to be happy that she will be remembered in this groundbreaking federal law.
Bailey died on July 4, 2025, in a daytime attack in a Kelowna, B.C., parking lot. Her ex, who was out on bail, was initially charged with second-degree murder, later upgraded to first degree. He had been violent to her in the past; she’d told others she feared for her life. Bailey was one of three women killed in the context of intimate partner violence in the province in just one week.
What frustrates those who work to protect women from abuse and help them build new lives is the reality that intimate partner violence is hardly ever a one-time outburst. All too often, it’s part of a pattern that persists over time, in which a partner or other man exerts abusive physical, psychological, emotional and financial control over a woman in their lives.
When a man uses tactics like gaslighting, excessive monitoring, name-calling and belittling, limiting movement and isolation, it’s known as coercive control. While that behaviour is abusive in and of itself, it frequently leads to violence and even murder.
After Bailey’s death, Frank Caputo, a Conservative Member of Parliament from B.C., introduced the law in her name. Unusually for a private member’s bill, it passed the House of Commons and Senate, and received royal assent in late June. Officially known as Bill C-225, it will change the Criminal Code so that killings that continue a pattern of coercive control are considered first-degree murder.
That’s a big change from the idea that abusive men simply “lose it” one day and go too far in their treatment of a partner. Instead, it reflects the reality that many men who abuse their partners do so methodically and intentionally, exerting ever harsher control that can result in murdering the woman rather than allowing her to live in freedom and safety.
Bailey’s family worked hard to publicize and support Caputo’s bill. It’s very rare to have a private member’s bill passed into law, and it’s almost unheard-of for that to happen within a year, but Bailey’s Law managed both. Although Bailey should never have died as she did, and there should never have been a gruesome murder that led to the new legislation, as her aunt told a news conference after the bill passed. “She will never be forgotten, and her daughters will know that she has left behind a legacy — a legacy that will make a difference.”
Please, if you need help, don’t wait, contact Women’s Resources 24/7 crisis line – 1-800-565-5350 or use the chatline on our website https://womensresources.ca/
By Nancy Payne
