Bill 189 explained in plain English
Lydia's Law (Accountability and Transparency in the Handling of Sexual Assault Cases), 2024
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Lydia's Law (Bill 189) mandates public reporting by the Attorney General on implementing recommendations for handling sexual assault cases, establishes a legislative committee review process, requires a review of the Victim Quick Response Program, and obligates police services to inform victims of sexual assault about the Independent Legal Advice Program.
Bill 189, also known as Lydia's Law, aims to increase accountability and transparency in how sexual assault cases are handled in Ontario. It requires the Attorney General to report annually on the implementation of specific recommendations from a 2019 Auditor General's report. It also mandates the creation of a working group by the Standing Committee on Justice Policy to review these progress reports and requires the Attorney General to review the efficiency of the Victim Quick Response Program. Additionally, police services must inform individuals aged 16 and over who report sexual assault about the Independent Legal Advice Program.
- Enacts Lydia's Law (Accountability and Transparency in the Handling of Sexual Assault Cases), 2024.
- Requires the Attorney General to prepare and publish an annual progress report on the Ministry of the Attorney General's implementation of specific recommendations from the 2019 Auditor General's Report, and to lay this report before the Legislative Assembly.
- Requires the Standing Committee on Justice Policy to establish a working group to review each progress report and report their findings to the Assembly.
- Requires the Attorney General to review the efficiency of the Victim Quick Response Program in supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, and to report the results of this review to the Assembly.
- Requires police services to inform individuals aged 16 or older who make a sexual assault complaint about the Independent Legal Advice Program.
- The Attorney General of Ontario
- The Ministry of the Attorney General
- The Legislative Assembly of Ontario
- The Standing Committee on Justice Policy
- Police services in Ontario
- Individuals aged 16 and older who report sexual assault
- Survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking
- The Attorney General has the obligation to prepare and publish annual progress reports and to review the Victim Quick Response Program.
- The Standing Committee on Justice Policy has the obligation to establish a working group to review the progress reports.
- Police services have the obligation to inform individuals reporting sexual assault about the Independent Legal Advice Program.
- This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Attorney General must report the results of the Victim Quick Response Program review to the Assembly within one year after the Act comes into force.
- The Attorney General must lay progress reports before the Assembly on or before March 1 in each year.
- The Attorney General must publish each progress report within 10 days after it is laid before the Assembly.
- The working group must begin its review no later than 10 sitting days after the progress report has been laid before the Assembly.
- The Committee must report on the working group's review within 20 sitting days after the progress report has been laid before the Assembly.
- The bill does not specify the exact content of the recommendations from the Auditor General's Report that must be addressed, other than noting they are from Chapter 3, Volume 3, Recommendation No. 1 on page 161 and Recommendation No. 3 on page 166.
- The bill does not specify what happens if the Attorney General or the Standing Committee on Justice Policy do not meet their reporting or review obligations.
- The bill does not specify the exact scope or methodology for the review of the Victim Quick Response Program.
This is the new law being created by this bill.
Source: Section 2, 3, 4, 5, 7
Provides the definition for 'police service' used in this new Act.
Source: Section 1
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced