Protection Order vs Peace Bond in BC: Key Differences Explained

When you fear someone, two different court tools often come up: a protection order under the Family Law Act and a criminal peace bond. They overlap, but they come from different laws and work differently.

This article compares them in plain language so you can see which may fit your situation. A lawyer can help you choose, and you can sometimes have both kinds of protection.

This article covers the law of British Columbia.

The basic difference

A protection order is a family law order. A court may make it against a family member if family violence is likely and the other person is an at-risk family member. A peace bond is a criminal law tool: a person who fears on reasonable grounds that another person will cause personal injury to them, their intimate partner or child, or damage property may lay an information.

If the fear is shown to be reasonable, the court may order a recognizance to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for up to 12 months.

Whether you can ask for a protection order often turns on who the other person is. Under the Family Law Act, a family member includes a spouse or former spouse, a person living or who has lived in a marriage-like relationship, a parent or guardian of the person's child, and the person's child. A person is a spouse if married, or if they have lived in a marriage-like relationship for a continuous period of at least 2 years or (except in Parts 5 and 6) have a child with the other person. Dating partners, co-workers or strangers who are not a family member cannot get a Family Law Act protection order, but a peace bond can be used against anyone.

Side-by-side comparison

Enforcement and the registry

For a protection order, police with reasonable and probable grounds to believe a term was contravened may act to enforce it, whether or not there is proof of service, and may use reasonable force if necessary. A Part 9 order cannot be enforced by another Family Law Act order or under the Offence Act. The Supreme Court form warns that disobeying is an offence under Criminal Code s 127 and that enforcement may include arrest without warrant.

Breaching a peace bond recognizance is an indictable offence with imprisonment up to four years, or a summary conviction offence. The Protection Order Registry is a confidential database holding both family law and criminal protection orders, and police can confirm an order's details at any hour.

What a protection order can include, and how it can change

A protection order may include terms restraining contact and communication, restricting attendance at specified places, directing police to remove, accompany or seize items such as weapons, requiring reporting, and other terms the court considers necessary. In deciding whether to make one, the court must consider, among other things, the other person's history of violence, whether violence is repetitive or escalating, coercive or controlling behaviour, the state of the relationship including recent separation, and your perception of risk.

Unless the court provides otherwise, a protection order expires one year after it is made, and it can be shortened, extended, changed or terminated on application by a party. An application to extend, change or end an order must be made before it expires, although a new application for a protection order can still be made after expiry. If an order is made without notice, the person it is made against can apply to set it aside, change it or end it.

Both the Supreme Court and the Provincial Court have jurisdiction under the Family Law Act, subject to some limits. Supreme Court Family Rules forms include F54 for a protection order, and filing there carries a fee that can be waived if the person cannot afford it. Which court and forms suit you depends on your situation, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer.

Other points to know

• On a peace bond, the court must consider whether a firearms or weapons prohibition is desirable for safety and, if so, must add it.
• A defendant who refuses to enter the recognizance may be imprisoned for up to 12 months.
• A protection order can restrict access to a residence in either court.
• If a protection order conflicts with another order under the Act, the other order is suspended to the extent of the conflict.
• Criminal protection orders can be enforced anywhere in Canada.

What to do next

• Decide whether the person is a family member under the Act.
• Collect dates, messages and any police report numbers.
• Ask a lawyer whether a protection order, a peace bond or both suit your case.
• Confirm with police or the court registry how to start each process.
• Check that any order made is recorded in the registry.

Frequently asked questions