British Columbia's attorney general has announced further provincial measures aimed at combating intimate partner violence, while calling newly tabled federal legislation "a step toward justice."

Nikki Sharma said Tuesday the province will be establishing a comprehensive provincial framework to provide guidance to all those within the justice system to help better respond to intimate partner violence. 

B.C. will also be creating an "internal government accountability mechanism to monitor the implementation" of reforms. 

The changes come after the release of a systemic review in June of the province's treatment of victims, survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the legal system. 

Sharma said the province has heard from advocates who have expressed the need for "consistent risk assessments" across the legal system to protect survivors from further violence, and government will move quickly on standardizing those assessments. 

"That's going to require sitting down with police, sitting down with different parts of the justice system to make sure they are inserted at the right moment and have the right quality to them," she said during a news conference in Vancouver. 

Her announcement on Tuesday comes as the federal government tabled legislation that includes classifying femicide — including cases relating to an intimate partner — as first-degree murder.

"Not only is intimate partner violence among the most serious of crimes a person can commit, but if a pattern of sexual violence, control and abuse cumulates in murder, the perpetrator cannot get away with a more lenient punishment by arguing the murder itself was not planned or premeditated. A record of abuse should be considered evidence of premeditation," she told the conference.

"This is a key step in ensuring families of victims receive the justice they deserve."

Sharma said the federal changes are historic and will make a difference.

"The Criminal Code and our legal system must clearly and unequivocally reflect the seriousness of hurting an intimate partner." 

The changes come less than two months after B.C. announced stricter bail for those accused or convicted of sexual violence, but Sharma said it has become clear that more needed to be done.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2025.