05/16/2026
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada has created a new civil-law tort of intimate partner violence, allowing survivors to sue for damages when they have been subjected to abuse in a relationship.
The court said intimate partner violence is not limited to physical harm. It can also include patterns of control and abuse that strip a person of autonomy.
“Intimate partner violence is a pernicious social ill deserving of the full attention of the law,” the majority judgment summary said.
The ruling says the new tort can cover conduct including physical violence, isolation tactics, manipulation, humiliation, surveillance, economic abuse, and intimidation.
The case involved Kuldeep Ahluwalia, who suffered abuse during a 16-year marriage after moving to Canada. During divorce proceedings, she sought damages for what she endured.
The Supreme Court found that existing civil remedies did not fully address the specific harm caused by coercive control in intimate relationships.
Justice Nicholas Kasirer, writing for the majority, said existing torts did not properly remedy the injury to “dignity, autonomy and equality” created by intimate partner violence.
The court ruled 6 to 3 in favour of recognizing the new tort.
The dissenting judges agreed that intimate partner violence is a serious crisis, but warned that courts should be careful when creating new legal categories if other remedies already exist.
For survivors, this decision could become a major turning point — recognizing that abuse is not always one incident, one injury, or one visible mark. Sometimes it is a pattern of control that changes a person’s life.
