44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 4, 2023 02:00PM
Mr. Speaker, I will take this opportunity to congratulate you on your election as Speaker. I would also like to say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Langley—Aldergrove.
The last eight years have not been kind to Canadians, since the Liberal government took power, when it comes to safe streets, safe communities and crime. One only needs to look at the recent StatsCan release to see the drastic increase in crime in this country since 2015. The numbers are absolutely staggering. Total violent crimes are up 39%; homicides are up 43%, up for the fourth year in a row; gang-related homicides are up 108%; violent gun crimes are up 101%, up for the eighth year in a row; aggravated assaults are up 24%; assaults with a weapon are up 61%; sexual assaults are up 71%; and sex crimes against children are up 126%.
That is the context when we look at Bill S-12, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the International Transfer of Offenders Act. That is the context by which we, as parliamentarians, addressing the fear in our communities around crime, around keeping Canadians safe, around protecting victims, look at Bill S-12.
Bill S-12 is due to be passed at all stages by October 28. This is a deadline that was put in place by the Supreme Court, when it gave the government 365 days to get this done, in response to a Supreme Court decision. Yet, here we are, with just 24 days left, to make sure that the national sex offender registry continues to be a critical resource for police to investigate and to prevent crime.
The last time the Liberal government had a court-imposed deadline to respond to decisions, around medical assistance in dying, we ended up, tragically, with a bill that would expand medical assistance in dying to Canadians living with mental illness. The government waited too long and rushed through legislation. That is, again, what is happening here.
I am going to focus my speech on amendments to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act as opposed to changes in the publication bans that were brought forward by our Conservative-led justice committee study on the federal government's obligation to victims of crime.
What is the sex offender registry? Conservatives will always stand up for victims and victims' rights. That leads me to these amendments to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act. The act was established in 2004 to help Canadian police authorities investigate crimes of a sexual nature by requiring the registration of certain information on sex offenders. To help police services investigate crimes of a sexual nature, the sex offender registry contains information such as the address and telephone numbers of offenders, a description of their physical appearance, the nature of the offence committed, and the age and gender of victims, and their relationship to the offender.
At the time, enrolment on the registry was up to the discretion of a judge. That discretion led to significant problems. The public safety committee review of the implementation of the sex offender registry in 2009 found glaring issues. The committee found that only 50% of sex offenders were required to register their information. This was happening for a number of reasons. An official from the Department of Public Safety told the committee at the time that with the pressure of time or workload, Crown attorneys would forget to ask for the order. The committee was also told that the order application rate varies widely by province and by territory. One witness stated that the absence of an automatic inclusion on the registry for all offenders convicted of sexual crimes has led to the inconsistent application of the law across the country.
The committee recommended to the government that the automatic registration of sex offenders would fix these holes in the legislation. In order to be effective, the national registry must be enforced consistently across the country.
I was proud to be part of the Conservative government that passed the Protecting Victims From Sex Offenders Act, introduced in 2010. That legislation passed with the support of all parties. The bill broadened the purpose of the sex offender registry by adding the purpose of helping police prevent crimes of a sexual nature in addition to enabling them to investigate those crimes.
We made sensible changes to strengthen the sex offender registry. For instance, we made registration automatic for convicted sex offenders. Our legislation also added the obligation to report any person ordered to serve an intermittent or conditional sentence. This is even more important today than it was then, because Liberal Bill C-5 now allows conditional sentences for crimes like sexual assault and Liberal Bill C-75 now allows bail to become more easily obtained by individuals charged with serious offences.
Conservatives also brought in the requirement of registered sex offenders to report the name of their employer or the person who engages them on a volunteer basis or retains them, and the type of work they do. Police should be aware if a sex offender is spending any amount of time with or in proximity to potential victims. We made these sensible amendments to the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to protect victims and to prevent crime.
On October 28, 2022, a split decision, five to four, of the Supreme Court found that the mandatory and lifetime registration on the sex offender registry was unconstitutional. The Liberals have simply accepted this decision. We have urged them to respond as forcefully as possible, and Bill S-12 does fall short of that.
I want to read from the dissenting judgment. It was a very strong dissent, in which it says:
...the exercise of discretion was the very problem that prompted Parliament to amend the Criminal Code to provide for automatic registration of sex offenders under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act... The evidence is clear that even low risk sex offenders, relative to the general criminal population, pose a heightened risk to commit another sexual offence.
That heightened risk is, by some counts, eight times the likelihood of someone with a prior conviction to reoffend. That is why incorporating and improving as many offenders as possible in the sex offender registry is so very important. We have seen how this has played out before. When it was left simply to the judges to decide who needs to register with the registry, nearly 50% of offenders were never required to register. This is before we brought in mandatory registration.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We can expect that individuals who certainly should be listed in the registry, even after the passage of Bill S-12, would be left out. We have to take every step to protect Canadians, to protect victims and to ensure that sex offenders are not given the opportunity to revictimize our communities.
After eight years of the Liberal government, the rate of violent crime is up 39%, police-reported sexual assaults are up 71% and sex crimes against children are up 126%. Canadians deserve so much better than this. I can think of no greater obligation for us as members of Parliament to enact laws that protect our communities and protect the safety of the most vulnerable. With legislation like Bill C-75 that has made bail so easy to get, legislation like Bill C-5 that has allowed for house arrest for sex offenders, Conservatives do not trust the government to take the necessary steps to protect Canadians. It has proven an inability to do that.
It is important that we pass Bill S-12, it is important that we respond to the Supreme Court decision and it is important that we go as far as possible to protect the most vulnerable. We look forward to the quick passage of this legislation. It is unfortunate that the government took so long to bring us to this point, but it is also important that we act expeditiously to protect Canadians.
1356 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, this legislation was a needed response to a Supreme Court decision, but I feel it could have gone further. It could have been tighter. There are a number of offences now that will not meet the threshold for inclusion in the registry, and there will be people who should have been included who will not be with the passage of this legislation.
Absolutely what happened with the issue around Bernardo's transfer is a travesty. It should have never happened. A witness came to us in our study on the government's obligation to victims of crime, and she said that in Canada we no longer have a justice system. We have a legal system, but not a justice system. I remember her words because I think of what happened with Bill C-75 to change our bail laws to create a revolving door that puts criminals back out on the streets. I think of the fact that Bill C-5 removed mandatory penalties for serious crimes against individuals. I also think of instances like the transfer that was put in place for Paul Bernardo. The government, by changing legislation, made that transfer inevitable. That is laid completely at the feet of the government. When it changed the law to put in a requirement that minimal holdings be implemented for each prisoner, it made that inevitable.
Absolutely we have a lot of work that needs to be done to protect our communities and to protect victims.
248 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise and speak to Bill S-12, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the International Transfer of Offenders Act. I will be splitting my time.
This bill makes extensive changes to Canada's sexual assault legislation and the role of the national sex offender registry, or NSOR, particularly those sections of the Criminal Code that were struck down by the Supreme Court, which ruled that they were unconstitutional. These sections required the mandatory registration of anyone found guilty of a sexual offence on the sex offender registry and the registration for life of anyone who committed more than one sexual offence. The bill was introduced in the Senate, and it has made its way through to second reading here in this place.
After eight years under the Prime Minister, sex-related crime has nearly doubled. In 2021, under the current government, the rate of sexual assaults went up by 18% from the year prior. With this pressing public safety concern, it is more important than ever for Canadians to be safe and protected from sexual offenders.
The national sex offender registry plays a key role for law enforcement to stay up to date regarding convicted sex offenders across the country. It also allows proper tools of investigation if an offender reoffends.
Although this legislation is a step toward protecting victims and the public, it needs to be strengthened with amendments. We must consider the fundamental issue at the heart of this debate: the safety and security of our citizens. We believe that, to protect our most vulnerable people, all sex offenders, regardless of the specifics of their cases, must be listed on the national sex offender registry.
Historically, the Conservative Party has taken a strong position regarding sentencing and enforcement related to sexual crimes. Our previous Conservative government introduced and passed Bill S-2, making it mandatory for those convicted of any sexual offence to be placed on the registry and for those convicted of two or more sexual crimes to be registered on the offender's list for life.
This was a significant change from the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, or SOIRA, put in place by the Liberal government under Paul Martin, in that enrolment on the registry was no longer at the discretion of the judge. This change was made to address concerns at that time that the registry's effectiveness was being compromised, given that nearly half of all convicted sex offenders were excluded.
At that time, the bill garnered support from all parties, enhancing public safety across Canada. Last year, the Supreme Court struck down the law in the Ndhlovu case ruling, deeming it unconstitutional.
In 2015, Eugene Ndhlovu pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault against two women, which took place at a house party in Edmonton in 2011. Prior to the ruling, with Harper’s bill, Ndhlovu was automatically registered on the national sex offender registry for life.
After the Supreme Court deemed the ruling unconstitutional, he was dropped from the list. The courts gave the government one year to change the affected provisions. That was a year ago, and the deadline, which is the end of October, is fast approaching.
Sexual violence is a heinous and degrading form of violence that has devastating impacts on the victims. More specifically, we know that sexual assault is a gendered crime, with the majority of sexual crimes being committed against women and girls.
It seems to me that a so-called feminist government would have acted quickly in response to the Supreme Court's ruling. However, the Liberal government continued to drag its heels when protection for vulnerable victims was needed the most.
It no longer comes as a surprise, though, that we see the Liberal government repeatedly fail to act on measures of public safety. For example, and most notably, the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing to reverse the decision to transfer one of the worst serial killers in Canadian history, Paul Bernardo, to a lower-security prison.
If this legislation is not passed before the affected provisions expire, this could open the possibility of sex offenders escaping registration, all thanks to the Liberal government's incompetence. Unregistered sex offenders would not have to report annually to registration centres or declare changes in their residence, leaving the surrounding residents in the dark. Without proper identifiable provisions for previous sex offenders, they would be able to go back to life as normal. Survivors of these crimes would suffer as they live in fear, knowing their abusers are not being held accountable.
Conservatives believe all sex offenders must be listed on the NSOR and will work to ensure mandatory registration is in place for as many individuals convicted of sexual offences as possible. Four justices of the Supreme Court agree with our position, highlighting the pressing public safety concern that justifies this move.
In their dissent on the Ndhlovu case, they stated that the law was constitutional and accused the majority of cherry-picking examples to rationalize their flawed reasoning. In their minority written opinion, they stated, “The evidence is clear that even low risk sex offenders, relative to the general criminal population, pose a heightened risk to commit another sexual offence.”
The previous system of judicial discretion, which was brought in 2004, already showed it was tremendously flawed, with data resulting in up to 50% of sex offenders staying off the registry.
Based on these justices' expert opinion, we recognize this is a pressing public safety concern, but our concerns extend beyond mandatory registration. There are other aspects of Bill S-12 that require careful consideration and potential amendments.
As my colleague from Kildonan—St. Paul highlighted in her excellent speech, while there are some cases or circumstances where enrolment on the NSOR would be automatic, those that would be discretionary include, but are not limited to, sexual assault with a weapon, sexual exploitation of a person with a disability and aggravated sexual assault with the use of a firearm. Knowing there will be cases such as these that would not be automatically added, but would be discretionary, is deeply concerning given that the system, prior to 2011, resulted in up to half of sex offenders never being registered.
Furthermore, while the costs associated with increased sex offender registration may be negligible, we must also allocate the necessary resources to support law enforcement agencies in effectively monitoring and managing the registry.
In conclusion, Bill S-12 represents a significant step forward in responding to the Supreme Court's ruling and improving the criminal justice system's responsiveness to the needs of victims. However, it falls short on what is necessary to protect our communities adequately.
The Conservative Party of Canada believes all sex offenders must be listed on the national sex offender registry. The safety of our citizens, particularly women and children, who are disproportionately victimized by sexual offenders, must be our top priority.
I look forward to this bill going to committee, where I am sure all members will work together to strengthen Bill S-12 so victims of sexual crimes can have confidence in our justice system and to ensure the safety of our communities. Only through collective effort can we ensure our justice system serves the best interests of all Canadians.
1232 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. I want to recognize a veteran in my riding who is 100 years old. I wish a happy birthday to Zack Bourque, who bravely fought for Canada and has recently celebrated his 100th birthday.
I am not allowed to point people out in the gallery, so I will not, but I also want to recognize that My Voice, My Choice is likely listening to this debate with great eagerness.
I thank my colleague for her speech. The unfortunate thing is that people who suffer sexual offences are often in a psychological life sentence, yet I do not believe we have seen the Liberal government act quickly with respect to sexual offences. I wonder if my colleague agrees with this, and what message that is sending to victims.
147 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, it is very simple: It is the notwithstanding clause. If I had a full 20-minute speech and an opportunity to share all the relevant details of the dissenting report, I would encourage my colleague to actually spend some time, because the language is so instructive on that particular question.
All sex offenders, particularly against children, pose a heightened risk to reoffend. The concern that we Conservatives had is that now, where Crowns can proceed by way of summary conviction as opposed to indictment, we would be giving that power to judges to do the right thing in the exercise of their discretion. We would be giving an opportunity for the sexual offender to justify why he ought not be registered, because his privacy may be invaded in some fashion, at the expense of the victim.
As such, I would encourage my friend to actually read the dissenting opinion. I am sure his opinion would be the same as mine, that all individuals convicted of sex offences, whether by indictment or by summary conviction, ought to be placed on the registry for the protection of the public.
189 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
There has been a lot of debate on this topic. I would like to present something to all political parties that has not been discussed in this House, which I really feel needs to be considered at committee. This topic has not been addressed whatsoever and I fear that we are creating a loophole that could victimize a lot more women and a lot more public officials. I really hope that the government and the justice committee give consideration to this issue.
It was sort of addressed by my colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke when he started talking about additional offences that would cause somebody to be mandatorily added to the national sex offender registry, where he said that there would be two more offences added to a list for automatic registration. The first is sextortion offences, where so-called revenge porn is used by an ex against their partner who has left them and they are angry so they post intimate images without consent; the second is that any posting of intimate images without consent would result in automatic registration.
I am happy to be corrected, but I do not think in this bill that type of offence is automatic registration. I believe it is discretionary enrolment. That might be something in and of itself, if that's true, that the justice committee needs to correct. However, there is a bigger problem here. The definition that the Criminal Code would use to define “intimate image”, I believe, is stated as follows:
(2) In this section, intimate image means a visual recording of a person made by any means including a photographic, film or video recording,
(a) in which the person is nude, is exposing his or her genital organs or anal region or her breasts or is engaged in explicit sexual activity;
(b) in respect of which, at the time of the recording, there were circumstances that gave rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy; and
(c) in respect of which the person depicted retains a reasonable expectation of privacy at the time the offence is committed.
The definition of “intimate image” would not change in this act, but the circumstances under which intimate images are produced have dramatically changed in the last year. I would like to draw the attention of all of my colleagues of all political parties to a brief that was written by the University of Western Ontario's violence against women and children unit. Brief 39, written in April 2021, talks about policy options for something called “non-consensual deepnudes and sexual deepfakes”.
If members are not familiar with these terms, every person in this House needs to be. In lay terms, what this means that if they or their children post something to social media, post a picture of themselves, there is now technology that is essentially like X-ray vision. Therefore, if they google something called “deepnude”, they see that it is a technology that actually scrubs the clothing off persons and posts that. That is problem number one. There is also software that superimposes an image, like someone's face, on top of somebody else's body. These are super convincing, incredibly real and hugely problematic.
In the U.S. in August, there were several articles that were posted; one called “Revenge Porn and Deep Fake Technology: The Latest Iteration of Online Abuse”. Some jurisdictions in the United States have enacted some form of revenge porn legislation. However, when they put this legislation through their respective legislatures, it did not consider deepnudes or deepfakes because of the definition of an intimate image.
Going back to the definition in the Criminal Code of what an intimate image is, “there were circumstances that gave rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy” and, going forward, “the person depicted retains a reasonable expectation of privacy at the time the offence is committed.”
I can just see legions of lawyers working on behalf of deepnude apps and people who are generating these for profit, arguing that somebody, by posting their image online, abandons their right to privacy; and, therefore, because the definition of intimate image in the Criminal Code does not articulate specifically images that were generated using this new technology, they did not have a reasonable right to privacy.
I can guarantee that this is what is going to happen. Sometimes I feel like I am standing in the House and I am like Cassandra, doomed to know the future and nobody believes me. However, this is an instance where Parliament should not be rushing through legislation that has such an incredibly profound impact on women. This is how women are being abused now and this is how children are being abused, and our laws have not caught up.
Going back to the brief that I mentioned, I draw colleagues' attention to some of the policy options that Western University outlines. I will read the entire section:
1. Criminalize the production and distribution of non-consensual deepnudes and sexual deepfakes.
Currently, Canada has no law criminalizing non-consensual deepnudes and sexual deepfakes. There are other legal responses that individuals may be able to utilize like defamation...depending on the context.
However, it is not certain. In fact, my analysis shows that the tort of public disclosure of embarrassing private facts would not cover this situation. If we take this lack of law in Canada, which is hugely negligent and hugely behind the world, and add that the Supreme Court ruling has basically eliminated the mandatory listing of somebody on the registry, how are we disincentivizing people from creating deepfakes and deepnudes of their exes and putting them online? There is virtually no guarantee of criminal repercussion and no guarantee that they will be on the sexual offence registry. In fact, somebody might even be looking at creating a business off of this for those who are not smart enough to figure out how to do it themselves, and it is shockingly easy.
I want members to picture themselves for a moment, just to drive this point home. We are in the middle of the next election campaign, and a member who is out door knocking looks at their phone and sees that they have been scrubbed by X-ray vision. It is all over the Internet for the next week. The member will not have any recourse because we have a legislative gap and we do not have the incentive to put someone on the national offender registry afterwards. Someone could have cost that member their career because of this information, and there is no repercussion for them afterwards. I am relating this to try to twig members' interest using self-interest, but we all understand the bigger implication here, which is the exploitation of children and women.
This is a powerful tool for abusive men to victimize women and their spouses. Women and spouses will very quickly, if they are not already, be under threat of this: “I am just going to scrub your clothes off”, or “It doesn't matter if you don't send me your nudes; I'll just make them anyway.” We know that is happening right now, and we know that it is happening to our kids with Snapchat and all of these other things. Half the time we do not even know what app our kids are on anymore. It is tough.
The other thing that this lack of law does is it makes it less possible for people to teach consent properly. We have to be able to educate our children and ourselves on what consent means. If the law has a giant gap in what artificial intelligence images are creating, then we have a problem.
This legislation and the review at the justice committee present our Parliament with an opportunity to address this issue in a meaningful way for the first time. Colleagues, I implore you, particularly members of the justice committee, that when the bill goes to committee, invite people who have expertise in this area so that we understand the prevalence of this situation and what some other jurisdictions are doing. Also, think about amending the definition of “intimate image” so that it specifically deals with deepfakes and deepnudes. We should be talking about it being illegal and immoral and saying that someone should end up on a sexual offence registry just like any other offender. I almost think it is worse for people to do this, just to be fair.
I am putting this on the record for future court challenges that might be looking at this parliamentary debate: The intent of this legislation should be to ensure that people who use artificial intelligence deepfake and deepnude technology to victimize women and children are on the sex offender registry. We should make that absolutely clear.
I will close by saying that this is why we need to review legislation. No member has talked about this. I hope the justice committee spends adequate time looking at all of these perils before this legislation is rammed through.
1534 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
