Chatelaine article: The Supreme Court just granted intimate partner violence survivors a new path to justice
Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark ruling recognizing that survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) require a new area of tort law that acknowledges and addresses the broader harms of their experiences.
In a recent Chatelaine article entitled, The Supreme Court just granted intimate partner violence survivors a new path to justice, Flannery Dean interviewed Kirsten Mercer, a feminist lawyer and anti-violence advocate with Mercer Advocates Law. Mercer represented Luke’s Place as an intervenor in the Supreme Court case.
“We know that many ‘survivors’ experiences of the legal system leave them feeling unseen and often unsafe,” says Kirsten Mercer
The ruling creates a pathway for survivors to seek compensation through the civil legal system for a broader spectrum of abusive behaviours associated with IPV, including coercive control, financial abuse, isolation and sexual coercion, harms that have historically been overlooked in traditional tort claims.
“The court recognized that the preexisting torts were not built for survivors,” Mercer explained.
