Protection orders and peace bonds: What’s the difference?
Unfortunately, all too often, personal safety becomes a serious concern both within intimate partner relationships, and through their breakdown.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) can take the form of physical, psychological, emotional, and financial abuse as well as coercive control, sexual violence, and criminal harassment. Anybody can be exposed to IPV regardless of their background or identity. Abuse can also escalate over the course of a relationship and at its breakdown.
When a person is in fear of their safety in the future due to violence experienced in the past with an intimate partner, there are two choices for restraining the harming individual from inflicting further abuse: a protection order under sections 183 and 184 of the Family Law Act, and a section 810 peace bond which is outlined in the Criminal Code of Canada.
You can also decide to initiate both processes at once if your situation and what you are asking for meet the criteria for both.
*If you are in immediate danger, we urge you to contact the police for help right away.*
Section 810 Peace Bond
A peace bond is a type of criminal court order with the purpose of preventing serious harm by imposing conditions on a person, which restrict the person’s movement or behavior to reduce the risk of them committing a future offence. The person whom the peace bond is being ordered against is called the defendant in this process, and the person applying for the peace bond is called the complainant.
For a peace bond to be ordered under section 810 of the Criminal Code, there must be proof on a balance of probabilities (that it is more likely than not) that the complainant is currently fearful that the defendant will cause personal injury to them or another person or damage their property and that their fear is objectively reasonable.
To start the process, you can ask the local police or RCMP to help you get a peace bond.
If the police officer agrees that your fears are reasonable, the officer will send a report to the Crown Counsel and the report will include what conditions should be set in the peace bond.
In B.C., the Crown counsel is the one who decides to move forward with a complainant’s application and presents the case to the judge. If the Crown counsel thinks it’s likely that a judge would order a peace bond, they will prepare an “Information”. This “Information” will need to be sworn by the police officer in front of the judge, and an arrest warrant or summons for the defendant to attend court will be set by the judge.
The defendant has to attend court to respond to the peace bond application, and if the defendant does not agree to the peace bond, a court date for the application will have to be set.
If the police don’t agree to ask Crown Counsel to apply for a peace bond, you can go to the court registry and ask to speak to a Justice of the Peace and get the paperwork needed to swear an “Information” yourself. If a judge approves your application, the Crown Counsel will usually take it on at that point.
A peace bond is useful if you fear further harassment and/or violence from someone you briefly dated, a current boyfriend or an ex-boyfriend, or someone you do not know, but who is harassing you. A peace bond can protect you, your children, your current partner and your property.
There is no fee to apply for a peace bond and it can last up to one year. After that point, you will have to reapply and convince the judge that your fear of the defendant is still reasonable and the conditions under the peace bond should continue to have effect.
If the defendant violates the conditions of the peace bond, local police and the RCMP can enforce the peace bond anywhere in B.C. and in the rest of Canada.
A violation of the peace bond can lead to the defendant being charged with a criminal offence, not only for the violation but for the criminal activity (ex. Assault, criminal harassment, uttering threats etc.).
Family Court Protection Order
A family court protection order can only be ordered against a family member including: your partner or former partner, your child’s parent or guardian, a relative of your partner, or a relative of yours who lives with you.
The protection order is designed to protect “at-risk family members”, meaning you, your children and other family members who live with you, as well as your children if they live at your partner’s home, or the home of your child’s parent or guardian.
The order protects against “family violence” as defined in section 1 of the Family Law Act, which includes physical, sexual, emotional, and mental abuse as well as against children’s exposure to family violence.
There is no fee to apply for a protection order in provincial court, but there are fees for applying in supreme court. If you are unable to pay, you can also apply for the court fee to be waived.
You have the choice of applying for the protection order on your own or hiring a lawyer to help you navigate the process. There is no automatic process for a protection order to be granted; you must argue your case in family court in a hearing.
Under section 183 of the Family Law Act, a protection order can: restrain the other family member from directly or indirectly communicating with the at-risk family member(s), attending at or nearing or entering a place regularly attended by the at-risk family member(s), following the at-risk family member(s), possessing weapons. The order can also specify the manner or means of communication or contact, and can include any other terms or conditions the court thinks are necessary to protect their safety and security.
The factors the judge looks at to determine whether the protection order should be granted are set out in section 184 of the Family Law Act, and include the history of family violence, whether it is repetitive or escalating, the current status of the relationship(s), the recency of the family violence, and the at-risk family member(s)’s subjective belief of risk to their own safety and security.
The judge can decide to make the protection order last longer than a year, but has to be specific about the time that it ends. If there is no wording on the protection order about timeframe, then the order expires after one year.
A protection order can be enforced by any local police or RCMP within B.C.; it does not apply in other provinces.
Another important point is that the other party can apply to have the protection order set aside before it expires, which means another hearing before a judge about whether the protection order should continue to apply.
Concluding Thoughts: What’s Right for You?
What’s right for you will depend on your particular circumstances, and sometimes, it may make sense for you to pursue both options at the same time if you meet the criteria for both.
If you have any questions about what makes the most sense for your situation, you can contact a lawyer for advice.