STRONGER CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAWS RECEIVE ROYAL ASSENT

OTTAWA, June 10, 2002 -- The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Martin Cauchon, today announced that Bill C-15A, containing tough new legislation protecting children from sexual exploitation, Internet luring and child pornography, has received Royal Assent.

"While the Internet allows us many positive opportunities, we know that criminals use the Internet to target vulnerable children. These laws better equip us to effectively protect Canadian youth from those who use technology to victimize them," said Minister Cauchon. "Law enforcement agencies will have more appropriate tools to bring offenders to justice and prevent future offences from occurring."

The new law makes the following changes to the Criminal Code:

Internet luring and child pornography: It will now be illegal to communicate with a child over the Internet for the purpose of committing a sexual offence against that child as well as to transmit, make available, export and access child pornography. 

Child sex tourism:  Amendments to the child sex tourism law (enacted in 1997), will simplify the process to prosecute Canadians who sexually exploit children in other countries.

Enhanced judicial powers:  Judges can now order both the deletion of child pornography posted on computer systems in Canada and the forfeiture of any materials or equipment used in the commission of a child pornography offence.  They can keep known sex offenders away from children by using prohibition orders, long-term offender designations and one-year peace bonds for offences relating to child pornography and the Internet.

The reforms also focus on several other offences under the Criminal Code:

Criminal harassment (or "stalking"):  The maximum sentence doubles from five to 10 years imprisonment, underscoring the serious nature and impact of criminal harassment. 

Home invasion:  The Criminal Code now specifically identifies home invasion as an aggravating circumstance to be considered by judges at the time of sentencing.

Disarming a police officer:  It is now a crime under the Criminal Code to disarm or attempt to disarm a police officer.  The creation of this offence recognizes that an attempt by a suspect to take an officer's weapon dramatically raises the level of risk police officers face in the line of duty.

Conviction review:  Amendments to the Criminal Code improve the process for reviewing allegations of wrongful conviction.  Conviction review includes the review of summary conviction offences, provides investigative powers to those investigating cases, and requires the Minister of Justice to provide an Annual Report to Parliament on the operation of conviction reviews.

Criminal procedure reform:  These changes modernize the justice system and increase its efficiency and effectiveness by, among other things, facilitating the use of electronic documents and remote appearances.  The amendments help limit the potentially negative impact of preliminary inquiries on victims and witnesses while retaining the right of the accused to a preliminary inquiry.

The majority of Bill C-15A will come into force shortly. Specific provisions relating to criminal procedures will be delayed to allow sufficient time to prepare for the implementation of the legislation.

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