Backgrounder

Government Initiatives Protecting Children Against Exploitation

The Government of Canada has declared the well being of children and youth to be a top priority and, to that end, the Government is continually working to make Canada a safer place for children to live and grow up. In order to achieve the goal of protecting children from exploitation, the Government has taken a multi-pronged approach. First of all, tough Criminal Code provisions and policies are in place to directly combat exploitation. These measures are constantly being reviewed and, when needed, improved to better protect children from harm. Secondly, federal police services have developed a variety of law enforcement tools and strategies to address the problem of exploitation of children. Thirdly, in recognition that legislation and law enforcement alone cannot provide the solution, programs and initiatives are undertaken to encourage the mobilization of communities and non-governmental organizations as they work to protect children and youth from exploitation.

I. Law and Policies that Protect Children from Harm

Canada is a world leader in the fight against the sexual exploitation of children. Canadian laws in this area, including those provisions aimed at combating child pornography, are tougher than those in many countries. Canadian law approaches child victimization from a number of perspectives, including federal criminal law (offences and penalties) and provincial and territorial child protection legislation. Together, they provide a comprehensive regime to protect children from abuse, exploitation and neglect.

Combating Child Prostitution and Child Sex Tourism

A Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group has been collaborating since 1992 to review legislation, policies and practices concerning prostitution-related activities. Acting on the recommendations of the Working Group, the Government of Canada undertook important federal law reform through Bill C-27 (1997) and later Bill C-51 (1999) to help protect children from being lured into the sex trade.

The changes in Bill C-27 help protect youth from predators who seek children for sexual services or exploit youth involved in prostitution for economic gain. The amendments also make it easier to apprehend and prosecute Canadians involved in sexual offences against children, whether in or outside Canada. A new offence of "aggravated procuring," which carries a five year minimum sentence, was also created for those who use violence against a child and force that child to carry on prostitution-related activities for profit. Special protections to make it easier for children to testify in court against pimps and customers were also made. These protections involve less intimidating methods of testifying, such as testifying from behind a screen, using videotape or closed-circuit television. These amendments came into force on May 26, 1997.

The Government has undertaken measures to make the child sex tourism law easier to implement. For example: the Department of Justice has prepared and distributed a fact sheet for law enforcement professionals on the legislation; the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has developed guidelines explaining the child sex tourism legislation for consular offices around the world and has included a reference to the legislation in its publication Bon Voyage; and Status of Women Canada is leading an interdepartmental and intersectoral (including the tourism industry) project to develop a national education campaign against child sexual exploitation. In addition, reforms to the Extradition Act in 1999 provide new ways to obtain testimony from witnesses outside Canada, including through the use of video and audio technology. These reforms provide a more efficient, cost-effective and victim-sensitive means of obtaining evidence in child sex tourism cases.

Criminal Code amendments contained in Bill C-51, which came into effect in May 1999, give police more effective tools to gather evidence against people who exploit children for sex. The reforms also make it easier to successfully prosecute predators by facilitating the use of police decoys and by allowing police to use electronic surveillance when investigating prostitution-related cases.

The same Working Group organized a national meeting of justice and child welfare officials and noted experts from each jurisdiction to develop integrated approaches to youth involved in prostitution, which was held in Ottawa from November 13-15, 2000. Co-hosted by the Government of British Columbia and Justice Canada, discussions centred on prevention, child participation and protection, the physical and emotional recovery of the child and his/her reintegration into society, as well as information collection and dissemination.

For more information, please contact Carole Théberge, Counsel, Criminal Law Policy, Department of Justice, at (613) 957-9606.

Strengthening Sentencing Provisions

The Government has taken action on comprehensive and preventative measures to protect communities from known sex offenders. Sentencing reforms were enacted in 1995 to make the breach of a position of trust or authority an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes. In addition to the 1993 creation of s. 810.1 recognizance orders and s. 161 prohibition orders, which can last up to the offender's lifetime, s. 810.2 recognizance orders were created in 1997 to respond to situations where reasonable grounds exist to fear that an individual will commit a serious personal injury offence. These sections were developed with the help of police to prevent sexual offences by authorizing court-ordered restrictions on movement and conduct. At the same time, the long-term offender provisions were created to enable a court to impose a community supervision order lasting up to 10 years for those designated as long-term offenders. In 2000, the Criminal Records Act was amended to flag the records of pardoned sex offenders on the Canadian Police Information Centre registry to allow the un-sealing of such records regarding applications for child sensitive positions. This provides additional information for screening purposes and better protects communities from convicted sex offenders.

Child Victims and the Criminal Justice System Project

In November 1999, the Minister of Justice launched the Children as Victims in the Criminal Justice System project by releasing a consultation paper entitled Child Victims and the Criminal Justice System. The consultation process has been comprehensive and inclusive and has canvassed many officials, experts and interested groups from across Canada on possible Criminal Code reforms and other measures to improve protection for children from serious harm.

The project is exploring the need for new measures to safeguard children to better reflect children's particular needs and vulnerabilities in four general areas:

• preventing convicted sexual offenders from re-offending against children;
• creating further child-specific offences, such as criminal child neglect, and modifying general offences to refer to the harms suffered by child victims;
• making it easier for child victims and witnesses to testify in court; and
• reviewing issues relating to age, including minimum age of consent to sexual activity.

The work on child victims is closely coordinated with the work of the National Children's Agenda, the Youth Justice Initiative, the under age 12 strategy, the Criminal Law Policy Section, the National Crime Prevention Centre and the recently established Policy Centre for Victims Issues.

For more information on the Child Victims Initiative, please contact Bernard Starkman, Senior Counsel, Family, Children and Youth, Department of Justice, at (613) 957-4748.

Protecting Children from Illegal and Offensive Content on the Internet

Information available on the Internet is growing exponentially every year. Canadians are taking advantage of this resource; studies show that we are among the most connected citizens in the world. However, some of the information available online is not appropriate for children and parents are concerned about how to protect their children from offensive content or from sexual predators who may be using the Internet to lure unsuspecting children. The Government of Canada acknowledges these concerns and has responded in a number of ways. While the Minister of Justice promised to create a new offence of Internet luring, the Government recognizes that legislation alone will not solve all of the problems associated with children's safety on the Internet.

The Government of Canada continues to support and advance initiatives focused on educating parents, children, and other Internet users to help them deal with offensive material on the Internet. It also helps law enforcement agencies to combat illegal Internet content and to assist the Internet services industry in developing effective and responsible practices.

Effective solutions to help protect children online must be comprehensive and draw on all available expertise. That is why the government is building partnerships across federal departments, with the information and communications technology sector, most notably Internet Service Providers, non-governmental organizations, communities, educators, other governments, and experts in other countries.

Key to the Government's approach are: supporting initiatives that educate and empower users; promoting effective industry self-regulation; and industry-law enforcement cooperation. Integral to its efforts are: dialogue and consultations with the public and private sectors; international collaboration with other governments; and research and analysis to better understand the scope of the issues and the range of available solutions.

To raise awareness of the risks associated with our childrens' use of the Internet, and of the information, tools and other resources available to help parents keep their family safe while online, the Government of Canada will soon be releasing a national strategy to address illegal and offensive content on the Internet.

For more information, please call Francesca Piredda, Media Relations, Industry Canada, at (613) 947-7457.

International Co-operation

The Government of Canada's efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation extend beyond our borders. Canada's commitment to fighting exploitation both within Canada and abroad is reflected in our ratification of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child that requires countries to undertake measures to prevent all forms of sexual exploitation of children. Over the past few years Canada was actively involved in the development of the Optional Protocol to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Canada's work with the international community to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of children is also reflected in Criminal Code amendments in Bill C-27. These amendments enable the Canadian prosecution of a broad range of child sexual exploitation offences, including child prostitution, indecent acts, child pornography and sexual exploitation, that are committed by Canadians while travelling outside Canada.

Canada actively participated in the elaboration of a new United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as well as a new optional protocol on trafficking of women and children. Canada signed the Convention and the protocol in December 2000, demonstrating its continued commitment to the issue.

Canada also supports the implementation of the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children's Declaration and Agenda for Action. In 1998, Canada sponsored a Youth Summit in Victoria as a follow-up to the World Congress, co-chaired by Senator Landon Pearson in her capacity as Special Advisor on Children's Rights. The Summit, "Out From the Shadows: International Summit of Sexually Exploited Youth", brought together 55 delegates including sexually exploited youth, experts, NGOs, politicians and government representatives from the Americas. Youth participants developed a Declaration for Action and presented it to government representatives. The Summit, the first meeting of its kind to provide a real opportunity for youth participation and action, was an international success.

II. Law Enforcement and Police Services

Canada's federal law enforcement authorities and police services have demonstrated both leadership and innovative partnership building through the development of a variety of law enforcement tools and strategies.

National Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Strategy

In 1996, the RCMP and other law enforcement partners initiated work on a national strategy to address the sexual victimization of children. In 1998, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) assumed the lead role in the National Co-ordinated Law Enforcement Strategy. The CISC, part of the RCMP-managed National Police Services, is a national criminal intelligence organization that promotes co-operation and facilitates information-sharing among Canadian law enforcement agencies. CISC formed partnerships with the Canadian law enforcement community (including the Sûreté du Québec, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia), the provincial and federal departments of Justice and the Solicitor General, the RCMP Missing Children's Registry, Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Customs Service and others. This strategy has led to a coordinated criminal intelligence response that includes national intelligence information-gathering, analysis, and threat assessment to monitor the activities of those involved in the sexual exploitation of children. It also provides support and guidance to domestic and international investigations undertaken in collaboration with Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Customs Service and others. Consistent with the Strategy, CISC works closely with other law enforcement agencies in Canada and other countries to investigate cases of Canadians abusing children abroad.

CISC brings together a network of nine provincial coordinators and a national coordinator with links to international networks. As a result of this initiative, recent local, regional and national probes were conducted on illegal child pornography activity on the Internet. All of these probes have resulted in charges.

CISC holds regular national videoconferences, intelligence courses, and meetings to increase police awareness of child sexual exploitation and child pornography. For instance, in 1999, CISC hosted a training seminar for undercover Internet investigators across Canada. CISC serves as the focal point for information and intelligence dissemination to Canada's law enforcement agencies related to child victimization via the Internet and related computer communications.

For more information, please contact Sgt. Emmett Milner, Project Coordinator, CISC, at (613) 993-8415.

Training Police Forces to Combat Child Sexual Exploitation

In 1995, Solicitor General Canada released a Police Manual for Cases of Child Sexual Exploitation. The Manual has been widely used by Canadian police forces as a training and resource tool. In 1999, the RCMP in partnership with CISC developed as a training resource "Guidelines for Law Enforcement: Sexual Exploitation of Children". These guidelines pertain to intelligence sharing, investigations - domestic and international, the Internet, officer training, public education and media awareness.

The RCMP's Sexual Assault Investigators' Course enhances the investigative techniques of police and social workers, increases awareness of respective roles and responsibilities, and provides a venue for dialogue between police and social workers so that they can address the needs of sexual abuse victims more effectively. The RCMP continues to provide specialized sexual assault investigator training – including instruction on child protection legislation, criminal law procedure, investigative techniques and child witness support and preparation. To date it has provided this training to 650 police officers and social workers. In addition, the RCMP provides training on victims' issues to victim services co-ordinators, RCMP officers and volunteers.

In the spring of 2001, the RCMP is offering two pilot workshops entitled "Sexual Exploitation of Children" to law enforcement personnel. The workshops will focus on improving the capacity of law enforcement personnel to prevent, deter and investigate offences against children. They will include sessions on criminal profiling of sex offenders, investigative techniques for search and seizure of illegal materials on the Internet, and child prostitution.

For more information on this subject from CISC, please contact Sgt. Emmett Milner, Project Coordinator at (613) 993-8415.

For more information on RCMP training activities, please contact Staff Sgt. Graham Robinson, of Community, Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services at (613) 993-6108.

Preventing Youth Involvement in Crime as Victims or Offenders

In 1999, the RCMP designated youth as one of its four national priorities. The RCMP National Youth Strategy (NYS) is a comprehensive, force-wide initiative that focuses on preventing youth crime and youth victimization through social development and building sustainable communities and community wellness.

The NYS maximizes the role of police in addressing the social causes of crime and victimization in a concerted and strategic manner by encouraging effective practices and sustainable services, crime prevention initiatives and effective collaboration with inter-agency partners on issues of shared concern. RCMP personnel are trained, encouraged and supported to be pro-active in identifying and combating social factors that lead to crime and victimization. In some communities, the RCMP works with community and social agencies to address broad societal problems. In other communities, the RCMP leads change to foster community wellness. Through the NYS, the RCMP has taken an expanded role in the areas of early childhood development, fetal alcohol syndrome prevention, health, housing, nutrition, literacy and early intervention, linking youth with agencies of expertise in order to prevent victimization or criminal behaviour.

For more information on the RCMP Youth Strategy, please contact Dorothy Franklin, Officer in Charge, National Youth Strategy, at (613) 993-4712.

Locating and Returning Missing or Abducted Children

Through National Police Services, the RCMP provides support to the law enforcement community with respect to missing or abducted children and other children at risk. Runaways are particularly vulnerable to those who exploit youth sexually. The Missing Children's Registry serves as the primary source of information on missing children in Canada. Created in 1986, the Registry:

• collects and disseminates data on missing children from across Canada and around the world;
• provides a photo-aging progression service to law enforcement agencies. Using sophisticated technology, this service builds on an existing photograph to produce an image of what a missing or abducted child might look like at a more advanced age;
• administers a travel program to return missing and abducted children to their families; and
• provides training workshops to law enforcement agencies and related departments.

Since 1986, the Missing Children's Registry and its federal government partners – the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade – have located and returned 4,634 children who had been reported missing to the police.

For more information on the RCMP's Missing Children's Registry, please contact Sgt. John Oliver, RCMP, at (613) 993-1771.

Stopping Child Pornography at the Border

The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) is active in the fight against child pornography and has made it one of its top priorities in its Contraband Strategy 2000-2001. The CCRA works in partnership with a number of groups - such as Interpol, domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies, the World Customs Organization, G8 countries and federal government departments and agencies - to stop the movement of child pornography, in Canada and around the world.

The CCRA works closely with Canadian police in cases where individuals are attempting to import goods deemed to be child pornography under the definition in the Criminal Code. These individuals may be charged by customs under the Customs Act for importation or by police under the Criminal Code for possession or related offences.

The CCRA has a national child pornography case coordinator as well as designated enforcement and intelligence officers across Canada. These officers work closely with domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies to identify high-risk travellers and importers who may be involved in child pornography offences. Specialist training is provided to make customs and police officers aware of the Canadian laws concerning offences against children, particularly child pornography. The CCRA has also provided domestic and foreign police with intelligence that led them to initiate investigations against previously unknown sexual offenders. In most of the investigations, the offenders were found guilty of a variety of offences related to sex crimes against children.

In 1998, nine countries participated in a multi-agency project conducted in Canada by the CCRA. The project's goals were to identify traveling child sex abusers and to stop the physical distribution of child pornography. Various Canadian agencies were linked to border control and customs activity, and points of entry into Canada were targeted. The project led to the arrest of 10 previously unknown child sex abusers.

For more information, please contact Michel Proulx, Media Relations, CCRA, at (613) 946-3461; Michael Crichton, Contraband and Intelligence, (613) 954-7594; or Kathy Pomrenke, Prohibited Importations, (613) 954-6940.

International Law Enforcement

The RCMP and the CCRA participate, along with representatives from some 30 other countries, in the Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes against Children, which meets semi-annually, to share information and investigative techniques relating to child pornography, child smuggling, and abducted or runaway children. The RCMP currently chairs a Specialist Working Group on missing children and the CCRA chairs a Specialist Working Group on child sex tourism.

In addition, as a member of the G-8 Law Enforcement Projects Sub-Group, the RCMP participates in transnational child pornography investigations that identify and target suspected child sex abusers, detect and seize child pornography and yield intelligence for further investigations. The multi-organizational project of the Sub-Group has led to many arrests and has supplied information that could be used in future investigations. This Sub-Group also concentrates on improving co-operation among operational law enforcement agencies and promoting best practices.

III. Community Mobilization

The Government of Canada firmly believes that legislation and law enforcement alone will not solve the problem of crimes against children. Many Government initiatives are now underway that promote and support the mobilization of communities to develop and implement solutions appropriate to those communities. The Government also supports the work of non-governmental organizations that work diligently and expertly to protect children.

Screening Prospective Volunteers and People Wishing to Work with Children

In 1994, the Ministry of the Solicitor General developed and implemented a National Screening System in consultation with provincial and territorial governments and organization responsible for the care and protection of young people. This system screens prospective volunteers and employees who wish to work with children in positions of trust or authority. It includes the use of criminal record checks conducted by the Canadian Police Information Centre. The system can help organizations screen out known offenders by providing data on convicted sex offenders. Canada's new national DNA databank legislation requires that those convicted of certain serious and violent offences provide a sample for analysis and inclusion in the data bank, and authorizes judges to order that a sample be provided by those convicted of certain other offences, such as sexual assault.

In addition, the federal government has supported Volunteer Canada in the development and delivery of a national education campaign to identify best practices for screening out known sex offenders. The campaign included the development of a screening manual for use by volunteer centres and police; a series of fact sheets and video called "Duty of Care" that were used to inform and educate the general public about screening; and training sessions that were offered in over 200 communities across Canada. To date, more than 2500 manuals have been distributed throughout Canada and 2000 charitable and non-profit organizations have taken training.

For more information on the National Screening System, please contact Cliff Yumansky, Senior Corrections Policy Officer, Solicitor General Canada, at (613) 991-5824.

Investing in Community-based Projects Aimed at Protecting Young People at Risk

The National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention is a $32 million per year program that aims to help Canadians create safer communities. This Initiative seeks to increase individual and community safety by equipping Canadians with the knowledge, skills and resources that they need to support and enhance crime prevention in their communities.

Through the National Strategy, the Department of Justice (National Crime Prevention Centre) and Solicitor General Canada support community-based projects aimed at protecting young people at risk. Sixty per cent of the 1300 projects funded so far by the National Strategy are directed at children and youth, and many of those are aimed at protecting children and youth from sexual exploitation.

For example, the National Strategy contributed $315,000 to a project in British Columbia designed to raise awareness and to help children to leave the sex trade, and to the documentary film, Stolen Lives, about the hard lives of young people selling sex on the streets of Vancouver and Calgary. The National Strategy has also provided a total of $149,000 to support the development of Missing, a multi-media program that educates parents and children about the dangers of the Internet.

In addition, the National Strategy has, since its launch in 1998, supported several community-based responses to the problem of children and youth involved in prostitution. In Victoria, for example, the National Strategy is working with the Capital Region Action Team in an integrated, early-intervention project for at-risk youth who recently have been, or are likely to be, recruited into prostitution.

For more information, please contact Mark Stokes, National Crime Prevention Centre, at (613) 954-1721.

Addressing Child Abuse

The Government of Canada has a long-standing commitment to ensuring a multi-disciplinary and multifaceted approach to child sexual abuse and family violence through the Child Sexual Abuse Initiative (1986-88) and three successive Family Violence Initiatives (FVI). These initiatives have sought to promote the well being of the family and to improve the responses of the justice, social services and health systems to help victims and stop offenders within areas of federal responsibility.

The renewed federal FVI strategy, announced in 1997, focuses primarily on preventing and responding to violence against women and children in the home. It concentrates on: promoting continued public awareness of the problem as well as public involvement in the response to family violence; strengthening the criminal justice and housing systems' responses to family violence; and undertaking data collection, research and evaluation measures that will enable the identification of effective interventions. The FVI complements other Government initiatives such as the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention.

The development of knowledge and the dissemination of information to professionals working in the health, social service, education and criminal justice systems is crucial to the task of identifying and preventing child abuse. On behalf of the 13 federal departments involved in the FVI, Health Canada administers the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. The Clearinghouse is a national resource centre that collects, synthesizes and disseminates information about the nature of various forms of family violence and best practices to prevent and treat the problem. It disseminates a variety of publications of interest to practitioners and the general public; it also provides an extensive Web site, an electronic database, and a toll-free telephone referral and information service.

To better understand the extent and dynamics of child abuse and neglect in Canada the Child Maltreatment Division of Health Canada, as a part of its national child health surveillance function, collects data and monitors the incidence of reported child abuse and neglect. Toward this end, CMD will be releasing the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS), in the winter of 2001. The CIS constitutes Canada's first nationally representative survey of reported child maltreatment, including child sexual exploitation.

To contact the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, call toll-free: 1-888-267-1233. To access the website: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/nc-cn/

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Department of Justice Canada
January, 2001