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C-236 — An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Prisons and Reformatories Act
Every bill summarized in plain language. Not clear enough? Ask for an explanation.
C-236
An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Prisons and Reformatories Act
CPC
In progress
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BILL C-236
An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Prisons and Reformatories Act
Last activity : At consideration in committee in the House of Commons
CPC
In progress
Commons · 1st2025-09-22Commons · 2nd2026-03-26Commons · 3rdSenate · 1stSenate · 2ndSenate · 3rdRoyal assent
Sign-in required — one request per person, no anonymous requests
What it does, in plain language
- Targets people convicted of an offence related to someone's death who know where the body or remains are but refuse to tell authorities.
- Requires courts to treat that refusal as an aggravating factor at sentencing, to denounce and deter the behaviour.
- Requires a judge who finds such a refusal but decides not to apply it to the sentence to explain why.
- Requires the court, for sentences of two years or more (including life), to set full parole eligibility at half the sentence or ten years, whichever is shorter.
- Lets the court skip that delay if it concludes the usual parole rules already meet the goals of denunciation and deterrence, and lets it revoke the order if the underlying circumstances no longer exist.
- Allows the Parole Board of Canada and provincial parole boards to deny parole and unescorted temporary absences to an inmate who withholds the information.
- Adds the court's order to the information that must be considered when a sentence is carried out and when parole boards make decisions.
- Lets a designated authority deny temporary absences to prisoners under the Prisons and Reformatories Act on the same basis, and names the law the Addressing the Continuing Victimization of Homicide Victims' Families Act.
🤖 AI-generated from the bill’s official text as introduced — may not reflect amendments adopted since.
✋ What does “challenging” mean?
Clicking “Ask for an explanation” is a citizen request for the bill's sponsor to explain it in plain language — and for us to keep an eye on it together.
An account (email) is required — one request per person, no anonymous requests. 🔥 At 1,000 requests on the same bill, a public post is made, in the hope an MP agrees to sponsor a petition to the House.
It works on any bill, including one that has already received royal assent — that is often the one people want to understand.
Votes in the Commons
Every recorded vote — who voted what, and by what margin.
On the “who voted what” detail — the House of Commons publishes each member's name for every recorded (nominal) vote (Yea / Nay / paired). The by-member breakdown above (the "+" button on each row) comes directly from that official source (ourcommons.ca), not an estimate. The party shown next to each name is taken from the current House roster; people who have since left the House appear separately under "Former members".
How to read a vote
Recorded vote
Members vote one by one and each choice is entered in the public record. That is what lets us say exactly who voted what — no interpretation.
Passed is not law
A passed vote clears ONE stage. A bill must pass both chambers and then receive royal assent before it becomes law.
Paired is not absent
In the Commons, two members from opposing sides can agree not to vote: their voices cancel out. It is neither an absence nor an abstention.
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Hi! My name is
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I'm 45, and dossiercanada.ca is your first step into democracy!
If we want people to understand politics, it has to be brought down to their level.
When I first tried to take an interest in it, on top of not knowing the jargon, bills came as two lines… and fifty PDFs. Most people would simply walk away.
So I had an idea: use artificial intelligence first to read through all of it, then to put it in plain words. That's how DossierCanada was born.
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Parliament glossary
Parliamentary jargon, translated into everyday language.
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