Understand coercive control well enough to prove it.
Two online courses, open to anyone. For lawyers, social workers, therapists, police and court staff who meet these cases at work — and for people who have lived through it and want to understand what happened to them in the terms a court now uses.
See the two coursesThe law changed. Most of us were never taught this.
In Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, 2026 SCC 16, the Supreme Court of Canada said that a pattern of coercive control is a wrong in itself — not a series of arguments, not “high conflict,” but one person stripping another of autonomy and dignity over time. A Criminal Code offence follows by June 2028.
The problem is that everything in the system is still built to ask did this incident happen? Coercive control doesn’t answer that question. It has to be shown across months or years of ordinary-looking events — texts, bank statements, missed handovers, who held the passports — and most people, professional or not, have never been shown how. These courses show you how: how to recognise it, how to tell it apart from a relationship that was simply difficult, and how to set it out so that it holds up when someone else is trying to take it apart.
Taught by someone who has to defend it in court
The courses are written and taught by Elizabeth Joy Dubois, MSW, RSW, who prepares independent expert reports on coercive control for family, civil and criminal proceedings across Canada and gives evidence on them. What she teaches is what she does on live files, where opposing counsel reads every line first. That is the standard the courses are built to.
MSW, RSW · Independent expert reports · RISA-certified · OCSWSSW #811905 · Member, OASW & AFCC
Evidentiary Foundations: Coercive Control as a Pattern Offence
The full course. How a coercive control case is built from the evidence, how it is tested, and where its limits are. Open to anyone; written for people who will have to stand behind their conclusions.
What you'll be able to do
- Look at a set of evidence and reach a position you can defend: coercive control is shown, or this is conflict, or there isn’t enough here to say
- Read a record in date order and see the pattern that no single item shows
- Handle the hard arguments fairly — “it was mutual,” “she’s alienating the children,” “he’s making it up” — on the evidence
- Say clearly when the evidence does not support coercive control, which is what makes you believable when it does
Eight modules, about six hours, self-paced, with a knowledge check after each, a final assessment and a certificate of completion.
Enrolment
$595 individual
$3,500 firm licence (8 seats, with a 90-minute in-firm session)
Taking both courses? The Practitioner bundle pairs the certificate with Recognising Coercive Control for $695.
Ontario lawyers can self-report the hours as substantive CPD; clinicians can map them to OCSWSSW and CRPO requirements. Confirm current treatment with your regulator.
EnrolStart here: Recognising Coercive Control
The shorter course. For anyone who wants to understand what coercive control is, what the law now says about it, and what to do if you see it — in your work or in your own life.
In four short modules, you'll be able to
- Recognise coercive control as a pattern, and name what you’re seeing
- Understand what changed in Canadian law, in plain terms
- Tell a real pattern apart from a relationship that was difficult, or a separation that went badly
- Know when an independent expert report helps, and what one can and cannot say
About three hours, self-paced, with a certificate of completion.
Enrolment
$195 individual
from $95/seat for teams of 10 or more
Just want the law explained, without a course? Understanding the Legal Framework is a plain-language guide to the Divorce Act, Ahluwalia and the new offence, and how they fit together. $47, PDF.
Start the courseTraining for organisations
The same material is also delivered live, in person or online, for police services, Crown offices, child protection agencies, legal aid clinics, clinical teams and law firms — from a ninety-minute briefing to a full day, shaped to what your people actually do. Tell me who is in the room and I’ll propose a format.
Enquire about training