A Liberal criminal justice bill targeting coercive control and sextortion could pass in the House in the coming days, but it’s unclear if there’s support in the Senate to fast-track the legislation before the summer recess.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser appeared before the Senate on Thursday for question period, where he was challenged on the timeline for Bill C-16 by Conservative Sen. Denise Batters.

READ MORE: Fraser urges passage of C-16 before summer recess, says bill could ‘potentially save lives’

She accused Fraser of treating the Senate and the chamber’s legal affairs committee “like a rubber stamp” by expecting the bill to complete review within a week or two.

C-16 likely won’t pass in the House until the end of next week. The House is scheduled to rise on June 19, while the Senate’s scheduled to sit until June 23.

Fraser said he wouldn’t dictate timelines and was only urging senators to do whatever they could to pass this “very important” bill.

“If the Senate determines it is not possible on the timelines that we have to work with before the House and Senate rise for the summer, I would understand. But if it is difficult and not impossible, I believe we owe it to victims in this country to make our very best efforts,” he said, adding that he’s heard from many about the urgent need for measures to combat the use of sexual AI deepfakes by extortionists.

“If there is any reasonable way, shape, or form to advance these protections, we know that there will be many, many victims who could be spared serious consequences with the absence of criminal penalties to the wrongdoer.”

Bill C-16 would criminalize threatening to distribute intimate AI deepfake photos for the first time, and includes new measures to combat intimate partner violence. This includes creating a new crime of coercive control and requiring the courts to automatically elevate any homicides deemed to be femicides to first-degree murders.

It also aims to reinstate minimum mandatory sentences for several crimes that were — or are at risk of being — struck down by the courts. This was done by creating a so-called ‘safety valve’ that allows judges to differ from the minimum mandatory sentence in narrow circumstances.

Conservatives in the House have instead called on the Liberals to use the notwithstanding clause to shield these sentences for judicial challenges.

C-16 would also require judges to consider alternative options other than staying charges when cases take longer than permitted to progress through the courts, a direct response to the 2016 Jordan ruling that set time limits for criminal cases.

Fraser told iPolitics before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that it was important to pass C-16 before the summer recess because of the protections it will offer victims and young people — not simply to comply with the parliamentary calendar.

“The real reason that I’m hoping we can accelerate the adoption of C-16 is to offer protection to people over the course of the next number of months when the House and Senate breaks for the summer.”

Batters suggested the Liberals break up the roughly 172-page bill to allow more thorough study, framing efforts to pressure the Senate to quickly pass C-16 as a way for the government to “correct its own wrong-headed soft-on-crime legislation it passed years earlier.”

Fraser responded that this wasn’t the case and legislation passed by the Liberals in 2023 made it more challenging for offenders charged with intimate partner violence to get bail, while also banning house arrest for those accused of serious crimes.

“The protections that we’re moving forward with now are not related to decisions taken by previous Parliaments, but instead are motivated by the feedback from law enforcement and from ordinary Canadians who are demanding more action on public safety,” he responded.

“It is not a coincidence that a plurality of bills that have gone before the House of Commons touch on public safety measures since we formed government a little more than a year ago, and my hope is that we can move forward offering these protections to people informed by provinces.”

A spokesperson for the Canadian Police Association, which represents front-line officers, said in a statement to iPolitics that C-14 contains “important measures… that would strengthen the justice system’s response to victims, survivors, and serious offences.”

But Michael Gendron noted the group’s bigger priority is passing the government’s bail bill before the summer recess.

As iPolitics exclusively reported, government officials have expressed frustration with the Senate’s pace in handling Bill C-14, noting that’s supported by the Liberals and Conservatives, as well as provincial premiers and local police chiefs.

READ MORE: Liberals question Senate’s handling of bail reform bill

The bill completed third reading in the Senate this week, but since it was amended at committee, needs sign-off from the House of Commons.

Gendron called the government’s latest public safety and justice bills a “welcome adjustment,” saying they reflect “direct engagement with law enforcement.”

Still, Gendron noted that this sort of agenda “naturally brings additional scrutiny,” singling out the government’s latest lawful access bill, where he said “parliamentarians are rightly taking time to examine the details and hear from stakeholders.”

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been a vocal champion of C-16, calling it an “important and necessary step forward in protecting victims of intimate partner violence and gender-based violence.”

In a statement to iPolitics, Brown said he “strongly encourage[s] the Senate and the federal government to move this legislation forward without delay.”

“I have consistently advocated for reforms to better protect victims and hold dangerous offenders accountable, and I believe Parliament must act with urgency,” he said.

“The safety of victims and vulnerable families must come first.”

University of Saskatchewan law professor Colton Fehr called C-16 an “immensely complex bill” that and requires “more than average consideration at the House of Commons and Senate.”

In an email to iPolitics on Friday, he said it wasn’t worth rushing the bill through Parliament just to have it pass before the summer recess, noting there’s another Senate bill on minimum mandatory sentences that directly conflicts with parts of C-16.

“While other aspects of Bill C-16 — especially those pertaining to delay — may appear urgent, it is notable that the Supreme Court has an appeal in R v Vrbanic that is relevant to the law of delay and may address some of the public’s concerns with respect to the application of s. 11(b) of the Charter,” he said.

with files from Sydney Ko