E-7540: Petition to the Government of Canada — Canadian Petition Tracker
Canonical URL: https://petitiontracker.ca/petition/e-7540
Track petition E-7540 — "Petition to the Government of Canada" sponsored by Terry Dowdall. 10 signatures and counting. See signature growth trends and provincial breakdown on PetitionTracker.ca.
Petition Text
Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
• The current application of mandatory charging policies fails to prevent inappropriate counter charges from being laid against victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence;
• Under current law, victims are only permitted to submit victim impact statements at sentencing when the accused has pled guilty or been found guilty;
• Existing conflict of interest mechanisms fail to mandate immediate disclosure or reassignment, leaving victims vulnerable to systemic bias and compromised investigations; and
• Currently sexual assault charges can be improperly resolved through peace bonds or non-conviction resolutions.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to reform the judicial and investigative systems handling intimate partner violence and sexual assault to address investigative failures, eliminate practices that retraumatize victims, strengthen accountability, and ensure decisions are based on evidence, fairness, and survivor safety by:
1. Implementing strict conflict of interest rules requiring investigating officers to disclose any personal or professional relationship with either the accused or the victim, with mandatory reassignment where a conflict;exists.
2. Reforming mandatory charging policies to prevent survivors from being criminalized when the accused attempts to counter charge the victim;
3. Ensuring sexual assault charges cannot be resolved through peace bonds, diversion agreements, or other non-conviction resolutions without judicial oversight and clear public-interest justification;
4. Removing barriers to victim impact statements by allowing survivors to provide statements regardless of the final judicial outcome; and
5. Creating independent civilian oversight bodies to review investigative failures, wrongful counter charges, mishandled cases, and systemic bias within police and prosecutorial systems.