Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: A Consultation Paper

The federal government is considering the creation of new Criminal Code offences to deal with voyeuristic activity. Specifically, what is being considered is the creation of a substantive offence to deal with voyeurism, as well as an offence to criminalize the distribution of materials generated by voyeurism. The Department is also seeking your views on whether a voyeurism scheme should include defences, and what kind of penalty scheme would be appropriate. These various issues are discussed in the larger consultation paper entitled "Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: A Consultation Paper" and provides a detailed and technical examination of the issues that arise in respect of formulating a legislative scheme to address voyeurism. The second document is shorter and less technical in nature and is called "Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: A Consultation Paper – The Abridged Version".

In the course of examining issues for possible further legislative development, it is common for the Department of Justice to consult with the public about appropriate options and policy. Citizen involvement in the legislative process lies at the heart of the federal government’s commitment to promote transparency and citizen participation in developing criminal policy.

In response to questions posed in either consultation paper, please feel free to indicate as much detail as you would like and to identify and answer other, related questions or issues. Short responses may be submitted in letter format. We ask that lengthier comments be submitted in a format that clearly shows the legal issue or consultation document question to which the submission relates.

The Department of Justice must receive all responses by Monday, September 30, 2002. The Department will then process the responses obtained in the course of the public consultation and will post a summary of the results on its Web site at: http://www.canada.justice.gc.ca/en/cons/voy.

• Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: Summary of the Submissions (HTML)
• Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: A Consultation Paper (HTML) (PDF )
• Voyeurism as a Criminal Offence: A Consultation Paper (Abridged Version) (HTML) (PDF )
• News Release: Justice Minister Announces Consultation on Voyeurism
  Backgrounder: Voyeurism Consultation