Bill 12: Quebec aims to protect rape victims
Posted February 23, 2023 2:10 pm.
Last Updated February 23, 2023 4:48 pm.
Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled Bill 12 on Thursday, which aims in part to protect children born of rape.
If adopted, Bill 12 would make it impossible for a rapist to demand a paternity test.
“Now the mother of the child that comes from that rape will be able to get an opposition to the paternity of the child,” said Jolin-Barrette. “And in the bill we give resources to have money for the needs of the child with that.
“And an important other thing about that is the fact that we don’t want to penalize the rights of the children, so we let him be an heir from the man who raped the mother.”
Bill 12 would also make the abuser responsible for helping to meet the needs of the child by paying compensation to the victim of sexual abuse.
At a press conference at the National Assembly Thursday, the minister said he was strongly inspired by the case of “Océane” last year.
The young woman, who had had a child following a rape, was unable to refuse her attacker’s request for a paternity test.
“Everybody in Quebec was shocked last summer when we heard that a guy was raping a girl asked to be the father and to be recognized as his father,” said the minister. “And right now, in the Civil Code, the courts didn’t have the choice. At the time that you make the proof that you are biologically the father, the tribunal has the obligation to make the recognition and to declare you as a father.
“We don’t want that happen again, so we changed the law in the Bill 12, and what we do, we gave clearly the choice to the mother, as the tutor of the child. So, the mother, with Bill 12, will be able to say: ‘no, I don’t want to have that guy in the life of my child… she will not be penalized and she will be able to ask money to help her with the education of the child.”
The Department of Justice estimates more than 170 children are born from rape each year in Quebec.
—With files from La Presse Canadienne