https://www.infirmiere-canadienne.com/blogs/ic-contenu/2025/04/17/controle-coercitif
How I came to the ‘realization that coercive control is often a precursor to escalated violence, including homicide’
By April Steele
April 17, 2025
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Some countries have introduced legislation criminalizing coercive control that recognizes patterns of behaviour — such as stalking, financial manipulation, and emotional intimidation — and holds perpetrators accountable.
Editor’s note: On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people, injured three others, and set several fires in Nova Scotia before he was shot and killed by the RCMP. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where 14 women were killed.
The tragic and now, in hindsight, inevitable tragic events of the Nova Scotia mass casualty in 2020 marked a turning point in my understanding of coercive control.
Courtesy of April Steele
“The journey from unawareness to advocacy has been transformative, and I am committed to contributing to conversations and initiatives that address coercive control in meaningful ways,” April Steele says.
Before the shooting, I intimately recognized the signs and symptoms — manipulation, isolation and domination — but struggled to find the right term to encapsulate my personal and professional experiences. Labels like domestic violence, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence felt incomplete, as they often focus on physical acts rather than the sustained, psychological abuse that defines coercive control.
Understanding coercive control has been transformative, giving clarity to experiences that previously felt difficult to articulate. The term is a reminder of how language shapes our ability to identify and address complex forms of harm.
Margaret Atwood, the well-known Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale, once said that “men are afraid women will laugh at them, and women are afraid that men will kill them”; this poignant observation captures the deeply ingrained gendered fears that persist in society (Atwood, 2006). This quotation resonates powerfully because it speaks to the lived reality of many women, where seemingly mundane actions, like walking down a street or encountering a group of men, can evoke an instinctive sense of vulnerability and caution and trepidation.
My learning evolution began with the realization that coercive control is often a precursor to escalated violence, including homicide. The public inquiry into the mass shooting revealed the devastating impact of the perpetrator’s controlling behaviour toward his partner, igniting discussions about the need to address these patterns. Laura Richards, the famed criminal analyst and host of the podcast Crime Analyst, called it “murder in slow motion,” a phrase that deeply resonated with me during this time. Her explanation of coercive control as abuse that unfolds incrementally, stripping away a victim’s autonomy, provided a framework to understand its long-term harm.
Regularly reflecting on Richards’s podcast and engaging with advocacy work has been instrumental in my learning journey. Through her discussions, I learned how countries like the U.K. have introduced legislation criminalizing coercive control (Yardley & Richards, 2023). Such a law acknowledges patterns of behaviour — such as stalking, financial manipulation, and emotional intimidation — and holds perpetrators accountable. Perpetrators are actively managed (Richards, 2022). Reflecting on this has led me to question why Canada and, in particular, Nova Scotia have yet to implement similar measures, despite the evidence of coercive control in high-profile cases like the Nova Scotia tragedy.
As a nursing professor and active practising nurse practitioner in Nova Scotia, I have also started to incorporate my understanding into my professional work. Whether through education, advocacy, or supporting victims, this knowledge has heightened my awareness of the silent pandemic of endured suffering by women. It has pushed me to think critically about how societal systems, health-care professionals, and communities can better identify and respond to coercive control.
Reflecting on this evolution, I feel both empowered and compelled to act. The journey from unawareness to advocacy has been transformative, and I am committed to contributing to conversations and initiatives that address coercive control in meaningful ways. This has become my research focus, my passion and, going forward, my life’s work. Let this be a call to action, especially since most nurses are women: challenge societal norms that perpetuate these fears, support educational programs that dismantle harmful stereotypes, and demand policies that protect women and hold perpetrators accountable.
Together, we can work toward a world where fear no longer shapes interactions or dictates behaviour.
References
Atwood, M. (2006). The Handmaid's Tale. [Appears in introduction by Valerie Martin]. Everyman's Library.
Richards, L. [Host]. (2021, March 22). 12: Special Report from the Intelligence Cell | Landslide Victory in the House of Lords in the Wake of Sarah Everard & Analysis of the Atlanta Shooting. [Audio podcast]. https://www.crime-analyst.com/12-special-report-from-the-intelligence-cell-landslide-victory-in-the-house-of-lords-in-the-wake-of-sarah-everard-analysis-of-the-atlanta-shooting/
Richards, L. (2022, December 14). Abusive men’s histories must be joined up. It’s time to join the dots. https://www.thelaurarichards.com/my-two-cents/terrorism-begins-at-home-its-time-to-join-the-dots
Yardley, E., & Richards, L. (2022). The elephant in the room: Toward an integrated, feminist analysis of mass murder. Violence Against Women, 29(3-4), 752-772. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221101917
Dr. April Steele, DNP, MN, NP-C, is an assistant professor of nursing at Cape Breton University and a primary care nurse practitioner at the Nancy Dingwall Health & Counselling Centre, Cape Breton University.
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