Restraining Orders in Manitoba: Protection Orders and Prevention Orders

If you are in immediate danger, call 911 first; Manitoba's main civil tool is a protection order under The Domestic Violence and Stalking Act, granted the same day by a Judicial Justice of the Peace at no cost, and a separate, broader prevention order from the Court of King's Bench.

Information last verified on 2026-08-15. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

The Two Orders Under the Act

Manitoba does not have a single instrument called a "restraining order." The governing law is The Domestic Violence and Stalking Act, and it creates two distinct civil orders.

The protection order is granted by a designated justice of the peace, in practice a Judicial Justice of the Peace (JJP). It is available without notice to the other person and decided the same day the application is heard.

The prevention order is granted by the Court of King's Bench, and it is the broader, second-tier route. It can include everything a protection order can order, plus additional remedies such as compensation, property arrangements, and a driver's licence suspension.

Manitoba's scheme does not include a "victim's assistance order." That name belongs to Saskatchewan's second-tier order under a different statute. A full search of the Manitoba Act's table of contents and defined terms turns up no such term; if you have seen that phrase used for Manitoba, it is describing the prevention order under a name that does not actually appear in Manitoba law.

Who Can Apply

The Act separates its two grounds. Domestic violence requires an existing or past relationship: cohabiting or having cohabited in a spousal, conjugal, or intimate relationship; a family relationship where the parties lived together; a family relationship where they never lived together; a dating relationship, whether or not they lived together; or being co-parents of a child, regardless of marital status or whether they ever lived together. "Domestic violence" itself covers an intentional, reckless, or threatened act causing bodily harm or property damage, conduct causing reasonable fear of the same, conduct that reasonably amounts to psychological or emotional abuse, forced confinement, and sexual abuse.

Stalking has no relationship requirement at all. It covers repeated conduct, without lawful excuse, where the person knows, or is reckless as to whether, the other person is harassed by it, and it causes reasonable fear for that person's safety. Examples in the Act include following someone, direct or indirect communication or contact, internet or electronic harassment, watching or besetting a place, and threatening conduct. Because stalking does not require any family, spousal, or dating relationship, a protection order is available even between people who have never had a personal relationship at all.

What Each Order Can Require

A protection order can require no following, no contact, and no attending near named places, with built-in exceptions for attending court, mediation, an assessment, arbitration, or supervised access, subject to mandatory conditions such as staying at least 2 metres away and not making contact during those exceptions. It can also order removal from the residence, temporary possession of personal effects, and surrender of weapons or firearms, backed by search-and-seizure authority; firearm surrender is mandatory if the Judicial Justice of the Peace finds the other person possesses one.

A prevention order can include everything a protection order can order, plus: exclusive temporary occupation of the residence; temporary possession of specified personal property; compensation for income loss, moving costs, counselling, security, or legal costs; a prohibition on interfering with property; seizure of property used to further the violence or stalking; a counselling or therapy order; a bond or surety requirement; and suspension of the other person's driver's licence where there is proof a vehicle was used to further the violence or stalking.

How to Apply

A protection order application can be made in person by the person seeking protection; in person by a lawyer, a peace officer, or a minister-designated Protection Order Designate (POD), with that person's consent; or by phone, internet, email, or fax through a lawyer, peace officer, or POD, with consent, sworn evidence, and an oath administered or recorded by telephone. No notice to the other person is required, the standard of proof is the balance of probabilities, and the official government FAQ describes a decision being made at the end of the same hearing.

Applying for a protection order is free. A fee applies only if you later want to vary or cancel the order before it expires, though no primary source states the exact dollar figure for that specific fee, so do not assume a number without checking directly. Manitoba's general Court Services Fees Regulation has no line item naming protection orders specifically.

A formal, centralized 24/7 intake system could not be confirmed. Official guidance describes going to the nearest courthouse during its hours of operation for an in-person application, and applying by phone with the help of a POD, lawyer, or police officer, without stating specific after-hours coverage. Treat a protection order as urgent and often same-day, not as a guaranteed round-the-clock service.

A prevention order application goes to the Court of King's Bench. Notice to the other person is generally required, unless the court is satisfied the situation is urgent enough to justify an interim order without notice. Official guidance describes prevention order applications as "best completed with the help of a lawyer" and notes they can involve other legal costs such as filing fees, unlike the free, no-lawyer-required protection order route.

Manitoba Justice Victim Services, reachable at 1-866-484-2846, provides Protection Order Designates who can help complete an application and submit it on the applicant's behalf.

Duration, Changing an Order, and Breach

A protection order expires 3 years from the date it is granted, by default. The Judicial Justice of the Peace can set a longer expiry if satisfied more time is needed, and the expiry date must be stated in the order itself. A new application can be made if the order has expired, or is expiring within 3 months, and the need for protection continues. Orders made before October 31, 2005 did not expire at all under the prior rules, though that detail matters only for very old orders, not current applications.

A prevention order has no set expiry date. It stays in force until a court varies or revokes it.

Either order can be varied or revoked by the court on a "fit and just" standard. The person the order was made against can apply to set aside a protection order within 20 days of being served, or longer if the court allows, but that application does not pause the order, and the burden is on the person asking to set it aside.

Breaking an order is not a standalone criminal offence created by the Act itself. A full read of the Act finds only two offence provisions, and both are narrow: breaching the publication ban on the identity of a party or witness, which carries a fine of up to $5,000 and up to 2 years in prison for an individual, or up to $50,000 for a corporation. There is no separate clause criminalizing a breach of the substantive no-contact or no-attend terms of the order. Instead, once a protection order is filed with the court, it becomes an order of the court and is enforceable as such. Manitoba's own guidance confirms this directly: a person disobeying a civil protection order can be charged with breaching a court order and, if convicted, may be fined, placed on probation, or imprisoned. That maps to Criminal Code s.127, the general offence of disobeying a court order, indictable with a maximum of two years' imprisonment, or prosecutable summarily.

This is a meaningful difference from a peace bond. Breaking a Criminal Code s.810 peace bond is its own explicit offence under Criminal Code s.811, carrying up to 4 years in prison, a harsher ceiling than the general disobey-a-court-order route that applies to a broken protection or prevention order. Someone used to a US-style contempt or violation statute might assume Manitoba treats a broken protection order the same way it treats a broken peace bond; it does not.

Recognition of Orders From Elsewhere

Manitoba will recognize another Canadian province's or territory's protection order. Under The Enforcement of Canadian Judgments Act, a "Canadian civil protection order" issued by any Canadian province or territory other than Manitoba, and prohibiting proximity, following, contact, communication, attendance near a place, or molesting, annoying, harassing, or threatening conduct, is deemed to be an order of Manitoba's Court of King's Bench. It is enforceable by any law enforcement agency the same way a Manitoba order would be, whether or not it has been formally registered.

This recognition is Canada-only. The statute's own wording limits it to "a province or territory of Canada, other than Manitoba." No Manitoba source describes any mechanism for recognizing a US-issued restraining order. For a reader coming from the United States, this is worth stating plainly: a US order is not automatically enforceable in Manitoba the way another Canadian jurisdiction's order is.

How Manitoba's Tools Compare

Manitoba's own Victim Services page describes protective orders as including "protection orders (often called restraining orders), peace bonds and prevention orders."

Manitoba's Family Law Act also has its own narrower "order respecting conduct," available only between a spouse, former spouse, common-law partner, or a person in a marriage-like relationship, but that Act explicitly subordinates itself to the Domestic Violence and Stalking Act, stating a court should use the family-law route only where it "would be more appropriate" than an order under the domestic-violence statute. In practice, the protection order or prevention order is the primary tool whenever domestic violence or stalking applies.

Once a protection or prevention order is granted, its details go into a computer registry accessible to every police agency in Manitoba, which is part of how the enforce-after-breach mechanism actually works in practice.

For how Manitoba's criminal courts otherwise respond to domestic abuse, see domestic violence laws in Canada. For the separate question of shared property and support after a relationship ends, see common-law relationships in Manitoba and separation agreements in Canada.

Getting Help

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. A protection or prevention order takes effect once it is granted and, for enforcement purposes, filed with the court, but it works by being enforced after it is broken, not by physically stopping someone from approaching. Have a safety plan in place regardless of whether an order is in place.

Manitoba Justice Victim Services can be reached at 1-866-484-2846 and can connect you with a Protection Order Designate. The 24-hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line is 1-877-977-0007.

Manitoba's protection-order framework sits alongside, but separate from, how a court handles court records generated by a family-law or criminal matter, and separate from the broader process of a divorce in Canada if the relationship is also ending formally.

For how neighbouring Saskatchewan structures its own emergency intervention order and victim's assistance order, see restraining orders in Saskatchewan. For how Manitoba's approach compares to the rest of the country, see the Canada-wide restraining order ladder.

Disclaimer

This article is informational only and is not legal advice. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Manitoba Justice Victim Services can be reached at 1-866-484-2846, and the 24-hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line is 1-877-977-0007. Several points in this article are genuinely unresolved by any primary source found during research: the exact fee to vary or cancel a protection order before it expires, whether a formal 24/7 centralized intake system exists for protection order applications, and whether Manitoba has any mechanism, formal or informal, to recognize a US protection order. Laws and procedures can change; confirm current requirements directly with Manitoba Justice Victim Services or a licensed lawyer before relying on this page.