Silent No More: Why Canada’s Bill S‑232 Matters—And Why It’s Not Enough
- therestitutionproj
- Jul 10
- 3 min read
In June 2025, Senator Marilou McPhedran reintroduced a piece of legislation that could shift the culture of secrecy surrounding workplace abuse in Canada. Bill S‑232, known as the Can’t Buy Silence Act, is currently active in the Senate and moving through Second Reading. It aims to prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in civil settlements involving harassment, discrimination, or violence—but only when public funds are involved.
That’s a good start. But it's not nearly enough.
The Long Road to Bill S‑232
This is not the first time Senator McPhedran has attempted to tackle this issue. In 2021, an earlier version of the bill (S‑231) died on the floor when Parliament was dissolved ahead of an election. In 2023, a more refined version—Bill S‑261—was tabled in the Senate and even passed Second Reading. But once again, progress was cut short when the 44ᵗʰ Parliament ended.
Rather than give up, Senator McPhedran returned with Bill S‑232 in June 2025. The bill prohibits the use of NDAs in cases of harassment, violence, or discrimination involving federal departments, Crown corporations, or federally funded organizations—unless the complainant specifically requests confidentiality and has access to independent legal advice. It also introduces a requirement for annual reporting on NDA use and mandates a parliamentary review every two years.
This is smart, survivor-informed legislation. It balances transparency with autonomy, ensuring that victims are not forced into silence, while still allowing them to choose confidentiality if that is what they want. It also holds public institutions accountable to the taxpayers who fund them.
But here’s the problem: this law doesn’t touch the private sector. And it doesn’t protect victims of criminal abuse, like child sexual assault, from gag orders funded privately.
The Limits of Public-Only Reform
Bill S‑232 rightly demands transparency from publicly funded institutions. But if we stop here, we create a two-tiered system—one where survivors in public institutions gain basic rights while survivors in private institutions remain muzzled.
Think about that: a nurse at a public hospital abused by a colleague may soon be protected from being silenced by an NDA. But a waitress at a chain restaurant who is assaulted by her manager? Still gagged.
And what about a child sexually abused by a person of trust—someone protected by an NDA in a civil settlement? If the institution pays out privately and quietly, this legislation does nothing. The silence continues. The pattern repeats. The predator moves on.
The Call to Action: Let’s Go Further
We applaud Senator McPhedran for her leadership and persistence. The Can’t Buy Silence Act is critical, overdue, and deserves to become law.
But Canada needs to go further.
We need to expand this legislation beyond public institutions to cover all workplaces, whether federally regulated or not. And we must address the use of NDAs in civil settlements that shield perpetrators of criminal behavior—especially in cases involving child sexual abuse.
The Restitution Project is calling on policymakers, allies, and survivors to join us in pushing for a comprehensive national ban on NDAs used to silence victims of abuse.
NDAs were designed to protect trade secrets, not predators.
It’s time to stop allowing them to be used as legal tools to conceal harm, suppress truth, and retraumatize survivors. It’s time to stop buying silence.
What You Can Do:
Contact your Member of Parliament and Senators. Ask them to support Bill S‑232—and to commit to broader NDA reform.
Share your story (if you are able) or share this post. The more awareness we build, the harder it becomes to ignore.
Support survivor-led advocacy. Legislation like this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens because survivors demand change—and allies stand with them.
Let’s start by passing Bill S‑232. But let’s not stop there.
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