Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled a bill that tackles the sharing of intimate images without consent on Thursday.
“The bill provides a simple and rapid procedure to prevent or stop the non-consensual sharing of an intimate image as well as the sanctions that can be imposed in the event of non-compliance with an order issued for this purpose,” said Jolin-Barrette in the Red Room of the National Assembly.
The piece of legislation is called “An Act to combat the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and to improve civil protection and support for victims of violence.”
Jolin-Barrette announced on Wednesday evening that the Quebec government was preparing to table the bill.
In a video posted on the Minister of Justice’s social networks, a text message appears saying “Little preview of my evening yesterday ;),” followed by a blurred image of a person appearing to be naked on which the text gradually appears: “one in five teenagers have already received an intimate image from a person who did not consent.”
Jolin-Barrette then appears on video to announce that the CAQ government intends to tackle the problem on Thursday, describing the sharing of intimate images without consent a “scourge.”
“It could be your daughter, your son, your sister. It only takes one text message to break someone,” the minister says in the video.
Cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images are on the rise, according to Statistics Canada. The group reported that the number of cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images has increased from 726 in 2019 to 1,168 in 2023.
However, sextortion as a result has exploded.
According to the latest data published by the federal agency, the number of sextortion cases reported to police in Canada has jumped by nearly 300 per cent in nearly a decade. Much of this increase has been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sextortion is a crime that came to the attention of Canadians when a 15-year-old British Columbia girl killed herself in 2012 after being harassed by a bully who hid behind anonymity.
– With information from Brieanna Charlebois
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews