Restraining Orders and Protection Orders in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut

If you are in immediate danger anywhere in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, or Nunavut, call 911. Beyond that emergency, each territory runs its own family violence law, and none of the three uses the same order names, timelines, or penalties as the others, so which tool applies to you depends entirely on which territory you are in.

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

Three Territories, Three Separate Laws

Unlike the provinces, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut do not share a single family violence framework, and there is no federal law that fills the gap. Each territory has its own Act, its own order names, and its own rules for who can apply, how fast an order can be granted, how long it lasts, and what happens if someone breaks it. A tool available in one territory may not exist, or may work very differently, in another.

Yukon: Family Violence Prevention Act

Yukon's law is the Family Violence Prevention Act, RSY 2002, c 84. It creates two order types.

An Emergency Intervention Order (EIO) is granted ex parte, meaning without notice to the other person, by a designated justice of the peace on reasonable grounds that family violence has occurred or is likely and that the situation's urgency or seriousness calls for immediate action. It can be sought in person or, if no justice of the peace is readily available, by telecommunication. A judge must confirm the order within 3 working days; if the judge is not satisfied there was enough evidence, a rehearing is ordered with notice to the respondent.

A Victim's Assistance Order (VAO) is a longer process decided by the Territorial or Supreme Court on a balance-of-probabilities finding, with both sides heard. It offers broader remedies than the EIO, including monetary compensation for losses such as lost earnings, medical costs, or moving costs, temporary possession of specific personal property, a non-binding counselling recommendation, and a bond requirement.

Both order types can grant exclusive occupation of the residence, direct police to remove the respondent, and impose a no-contact condition. An EIO specifically can require a firearms surrender for up to 180 days, and that surrender becomes mandatory, not discretionary, if a firearm was used or its use was threatened.

How to apply: Yukon Victim Services or the RCMP take the initial statement, and Victim Services organizes the justice of the peace hearing, which can be done by phone for the justice, though the victim is expected to be present in person, either at Victim Services or an RCMP detachment. Yukon's government describes an EIO as something that can often be granted within 24 hours, though that is a service standard on the government's own practice page, not a fixed legal deadline written into the Act itself, whose only explicit deadline is the judge's 3-working-day confirmation window.

Duration: the Act sets no fixed statutory cap for either order; the justice of the peace or court sets an expiry date at their discretion. Yukon's own practice guidance describes typical durations of about 30 days for an EIO and about 90 days for a VAO, both explicitly framed as a bridge to a Family Court process or other longer-term step, not as final orders. Treat those figures as practice averages, not statutory maximums.

Fees: not addressed in the Act. Yukon's government page describes Victim Services helping with statements, applications, and filing at no charge, but no fee schedule was located either way, so this should be treated as no publicized fee rather than a confirmed free process.

Breach: under section 16, a false statement in an application or hearing, disobeying an order, or obstructing a peace officer enforcing one is a summary offence carrying up to $2,000 and 6 months for a first offence, rising to up to $5,000 and 12 months for a second or later breach. A search reference to a possible 2005 amendment to this section could not be independently opened in this research, so treat these figures as needing a currency re-check before citing a specific dollar amount in a real situation.

Recognition of outside orders: no provision anywhere in the Act addresses recognizing or enforcing a protection order from another province or territory.

Northwest Territories: Protection Against Family Violence Act

The Northwest Territories runs the Protection Against Family Violence Act, SNWT 2003, c 24, most recently and substantially amended by SNWT 2025, c 14, in force July 17, 2026. This makes it the most currently updated of the three territorial laws covered here, not a stale text.

What changed in 2025: the definition of family violence now expressly includes psychological, emotional, and financial abuse, and a new standalone definition of stalking covering following, contacting, watching a place, threatening conduct, and using electronic means to track someone. A new deemed-fear provision treats a person as having reasonably feared for their safety even if they could not consciously register that fear because they are a minor or not mentally competent. The list of eligible applicants was widened beyond spouses to include intimate partners, co-parents, parents and grandparents of the respondent or a co-parent, a broadly defined family relationship, and a new care relationship category for a person dependent on another for daily-life assistance because of a disability, illness, aging, or impairment. The amendment also created a new civil tort of stalking, letting someone sue over stalking by a person they have or had a qualifying relationship with, without having to prove damages.

Order types: an Emergency Protection Order (EPO) is made ex parte by a designated justice on reasonable grounds that family violence occurred or is likely and that immediate protection is needed. It can include no-contact terms, exclusive residence occupation, police-directed removal, and a weapon surrender of up to 90 days that becomes mandatory specifically for a firearm. Statutory maximum duration: 90 days. A Protection Order can also be sought ex parte, made by the Supreme Court on a balance-of-probabilities finding, with broader remedies including monetary compensation and counselling or therapy attendance, including paying for a child's counselling, and a weapon surrender with no 90-day cap. The government's own protection-orders page describes this order as able to last a long time, with no statutory maximum found in the Act.

How to apply: contact the local RCMP detachment or, in the Yellowknife area, the YWCA Alison McAteer House crisis line, both described as designated and trained to help with EPO applications; they connect the applicant to a justice of the peace by phone for the hearing. A standard Protection Order is applied for through a local court worker, Victim Services worker, Legal Aid, or a private lawyer, and the government's own page frames it as usually taking a few weeks, with the EPO positioned as the faster first step while a Protection Order is pursued in parallel.

Review: a designated justice forwards the EPO and supporting notes to the court, which reviews it without a hearing within 3 working days and either confirms it, at which point it is treated as a full court order, or directs a full hearing if not satisfied there was enough evidence.

Fees: not addressed in the Act, and the government's process page does not mention a fee for either order type.

Breach: a single-tier offence under section 18 covers failing to comply with any order term, making a false statement, obstructing enforcement, or unlawfully publishing prohibited information, carrying up to $10,000 and 6 months in jail. Unlike Yukon, there is no separate, higher penalty tier written into the Act for a repeat breach.

Recognition of outside orders: a full-text search of the Act found no provision on recognizing or enforcing an order from another province or territory.

Nunavut: Family Abuse Intervention Act, and a Currency Warning

Nunavut's law is the Family Abuse Intervention Act, S.Nu. 2006, c 18. Before anything else about this law: the official consolidation available for this research is stamped, on every page, "Current to: February 5, 2013." Three later amending acts, from 2017, 2018, and 2020, were identified but never opened, so their substance is completely unknown. This is the largest currency gap of any jurisdiction in this cluster. Every specific figure, duration, or procedure described below for Nunavut should be treated as what the law said as of 2013, not confirmed as still current, and re-verified with Nunavut's own government or a lawyer before anyone relies on it for a real situation.

With that caveat prominently in mind, Nunavut's Act is also the richest of the three territories, with four separate remedies:

• An Emergency Protection Order (EPO), granted ex parte by a designated justice of the peace on a three-part test: family abuse occurred, there is a reasonable likelihood it will continue or resume, and the situation's urgency makes an order necessary for immediate protection. It can include no-contact, no-attend, and temporary custody or property terms, plus a weapon surrender capped at 90 days. A mandatory-consideration calming period of up to 72 hours of no-contact is available even short of a full order. Statutory maximum duration: one year, the longest EPO-equivalent cap of the three territories.
• A Community Intervention Order (CIO), a genuinely distinctive tool not found in either other territory's law. It must include a term restraining further family abuse, and may direct both parties to attend traditional Inuit counselling with a named elder, community member, or community organization, who reports back to the justice of the peace on progress. Either party can refuse a specific counsellor if the pairing would be counterproductive. Statutory maximum duration: three years, reflecting its rehabilitative rather than emergency character; any interested person may make submissions at the hearing, a more communal process than the other order types.
• An Assistance Order, made by a judge on the same abuse-and-likelihood standard as the EPO but with no statutory duration cap, and broader remedies including child access terms and seizure of property used in furthering the abuse.
• A Compensation Order, a standalone remedy letting a judge order monetary reimbursement for lost income, property damage, moving or security costs, and medical or legal expenses, available on its own rather than only as a term inside another order.

The Act also creates a freestanding civil tort of stalking, actionable without proof of damages, a feature Nunavut has had since the original 2006 enactment, roughly two decades before the Northwest Territories added the same kind of tort in 2025.

How to apply: any designated justice of the peace can grant an EPO or CIO ex parte. Applications can be made by the person affected or, with consent, by a family member, friend, lawyer, RCMP officer, or another prescribed category of person, with a deemed-consent fallback for a minor or a person who is not mentally competent or is otherwise especially vulnerable. A claim that Nunavut justices of the peace are on call 24 hours a day and that a Community Justice Outreach Worker is a normal local intake point, alongside the RCMP, surfaced in research but could not be confirmed against a Nunavut government source, so it is noted here only as unverified, not as a confirmed fact.

Fees: not addressed anywhere in the Act, and no Nunavut government fee-schedule page could be reached to confirm either way.

Breach: a genuinely different structure. Unlike Yukon and the Northwest Territories, the Act does not create a standalone offence for simply disobeying an order's conditions. Instead, police have a warrantless arrest power for reasonable grounds to believe an order term has been contravened, meaning enforcement of a bare breach runs through arrest rather than through a Family Abuse Intervention Act offence provision. Separate offences do exist for obstructing or hindering someone performing an authorized function, up to $5,000 and 6 months for a first offence and up to $10,000 and 2 years for a repeat, and for breaching a publication ban, up to $5,000 and 2 years for an individual. This structural difference should be understood as an inference from the absence of a bare-breach offence in the Act's text, not as a confirmed statement that breaches are always prosecuted under the Criminal Code instead, since that specific link was not independently verified against a Nunavut enforcement guide.

Recognition of outside orders: the same conclusion as Yukon and the Northwest Territories: no provision found addressing recognition of an order from another province or territory.

Victim services (as of a 2021-dated federal report, so treat program details as needing a current check): the Saillivik Program, run by the Department of Health and Social Services, can connect a family to Family Abuse Intervention Act remedies or to shelter. Four family violence shelters were operating in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Kugluktuk, and Cambridge Bay, with Qimaavik in Iqaluit the largest at 21 beds and open 24 hours. A Community Safe Home program offered temporary safe housing in six participating communities, and Crown Witness Coordinators, a program unique to the three territories, supported victims and witnesses through the criminal court process.

Other Tools Across the Territories

All three territorial governments separately describe a family-court restraining order and a criminal peace bond as options outside these family violence Acts, alongside standard criminal no-contact conditions attached at bail, probation, or sentencing. None of the three government sources reviewed for this page walks through a detailed side-by-side comparison of those tools against the territory's own emergency order, so this page does not attempt to state territory-specific detail on peace bonds. For the general Criminal Code peace bond mechanism, see peace bonds in Canada; for how criminal law separately treats family and intimate-partner violence, see domestic violence laws in Canada.

None of these territorial orders replace the broader family law process. For separating, dividing property, or arranging parenting time, see divorce in Canada, separation agreements in Canada, and parenting time and decision-making. For how the cohabitation and common-law rules that feed into these eligibility tests work more generally, see common-law relationships in the territories and the national common-law relationships overview. If an order becomes part of a court file you need to locate later, see court records in the territories. For how the territories' approach compares to the rest of the country, see the Canada-wide restraining order ladder.

Getting Help

In immediate danger anywhere in the three territories, call 911.

Yukon Victim Services: offices in Whitehorse, Dawson City, and Watson Lake, 867-667-8500 or toll-free 1-800-661-0408.

Northwest Territories: NWT Victim Services, 867-767-9261, to be connected to a local worker; in the Yellowknife area, YWCA Alison McAteer House crisis line, 1-866-223-7775 or 867-873-8257.

Nunavut: contact the RCMP or the Saillivik Program through the Department of Health and Social Services for a connection to shelter or to Family Abuse Intervention Act remedies; Qimaavik in Iqaluit operates as a 24-hour shelter.

Disclaimer

This article is informational only and is not legal advice. Family violence laws in all three territories can change, and Nunavut's law in particular carries a significant, explicitly flagged currency gap: its consolidation is stamped current only to February 5, 2013, with three later amending acts not reviewed for this page. Other unresolved points include whether Yukon's breach penalties were affected by a possible 2005 amendment, and whether any of the three territories would recognize a protection order issued elsewhere in Canada in practice, even though none of their laws addresses it directly. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For help in Yukon, contact Victim Services at 867-667-8500; in the Northwest Territories, at 867-767-9261; in Nunavut, contact the RCMP or the Saillivik Program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there one protection order law that covers Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut?

No. Each territory has its own separate Act with different order names, eligibility rules, timelines, and penalties. Yukon's Family Violence Prevention Act, the Northwest Territories' Protection Against Family Violence Act, and Nunavut's Family Abuse Intervention Act are three distinct laws.

How long does an emergency order last in each territory?

Yukon sets no fixed statutory cap, with a practice average around 30 days for an Emergency Intervention Order. The Northwest Territories caps its Emergency Protection Order at 90 days by statute. Nunavut caps its Emergency Protection Order at one year, the longest of the three.

Why does this page keep flagging Nunavut's law as possibly out of date?

The official Family Abuse Intervention Act consolidation available for this research is stamped current only to February 5, 2013. Three later amending acts, from 2017, 2018, and 2020, were never opened, so whether they changed any of the figures described here is unknown. Confirm anything Nunavut-specific with a current source before relying on it.

What is a Community Intervention Order in Nunavut?

It is a Nunavut-specific remedy under the Family Abuse Intervention Act that can direct both parties to attend traditional Inuit counselling with an elder or community counsellor, who reports back on progress. It can last up to three years and is not available in Yukon or the Northwest Territories.

What changed in the Northwest Territories' family violence law for 2026?

An amendment in force July 17, 2026 added a new civil tort of stalking, a deemed-fear provision for children and people who cannot consciously register fear, and a broadened list of eligible applicants including a new care relationship category for dependent adults.

Will a protection order from one territory be recognized in another territory or a province?

No provision was found in any of the three territories' family violence laws addressing recognition of an order from another jurisdiction. This is confirmed as a gap in the text of each Act, not a statement about how police or courts would actually treat an out-of-territory order in practice.