CAQ wants to tackle the “scourge” of sharing intimate images without consent

Photo: Francis Vachon Le Devoir Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette will table a bill on Thursday entitled “An Act to combat the sharing of intimate images without consent and to improve the protection and support in civil matters for victims of violence.”

Caroline Chatelard – The Canadian Press

Published at 0:34

• Québec

Simon Jolin-Barrette announced Wednesday evening, in a rather original manner, that the Quebec government was preparing to legislate on the sharing of intimate images without consent.

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In a video posted on the Minister of Justice’s social media, a text message appears saying “A little preview of my evening yesterday ;)”, followed by a blurred image of a person who appears to be naked on which the text gradually appears: “1 in 5 teenagers have already received an intimate image from a person who did not consent”. Then, Mr. Jolin-Barrette appears on video to announce that the CAQ government plans to tackle the problem starting Thursday, calling 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.

A bill will be tabled Thursday by Mr. Jolin-Barrette. The bill is called “An Act to combat the sharing of intimate images without consent and to improve civil protection and support for victims of violence.”

Cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images are on the rise, according to Statistics Canada. The census group says the number of cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images has increased from 726 in 2019 to 1,168 in 2023.

But it’s the sextortion that can result that 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% in nearly a decade. Much of this increase has been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sextortion is a crime that caught the attention of Canadians when a 15-year-old girl from British Columbia committed suicide in 2012 after being harassed by a bully hiding behind his anonymity.

With information from Brieanna Charlebois