An Act to amend the Criminal Code (sexual assault material)

This bill adds a new section to the Criminal Code that creates specific criminal offences dealing with visual recordings of non-consensual sexual activity, referred to as "sexual assault material." This covers photos, films, or videos that realistically and explicitly show sexual acts that were not consensual or that violate a person's sexual integrity.

Under the new rules, it becomes a serious crime to knowingly make, print, publish, or possess such material for publication, or to distribute, sell, advertise, transmit, import, or export it. These offences carry penalties of up to 14 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Simply possessing this material knowingly is also an offence, with penalties of up to 5 years in prison, while knowingly accessing or viewing it (even without keeping a copy) can lead to up to 10 years in prison. Less serious cases of possession or access could instead be prosecuted as summary offences with lighter penalties, up to two years less a day in jail and fines up to $20,000.

The bill also sets out rules for how these charges apply. If someone commits the offence for profit, that is treated as a factor that can increase their sentence. A person accused of making this material cannot simply claim they believed the activity was consensual unless they took reasonable steps to confirm that it was, and to make sure the recording did not falsely portray it as non-consensual. Finally, no one can be convicted under this new section if their actions had a legitimate purpose connected to justice, science, medicine, education, or the arts, which is meant to protect uses such as legal proceedings, academic research, or artistic works.

This bill adds a new section to the Criminal Code creating offences for making, distributing, possessing, and accessing "sexual assault material," each with defined penalties.

• New offence categories — knowingly making, printing, publishing, or possessing for publication such material carries up to 14 years imprisonment or a $100,000 fine, or both; distribution-related acts (transmitting, selling, advertising, importing, exporting) carry the same maximum penalties.
• Possession and access offences — simple possession is punishable by up to five years (indictable) or up to two years less a day and a $20,000 fine (summary conviction); knowingly accessing the material (viewing or causing it to be transmitted to oneself) carries up to 10 years (indictable) or the same summary option.
• Sentencing consideration — courts are directed to treat an offender's intent to make a profit as an aggravating factor when imposing sentence, without specifying how much weight this carries.
• Defence limits — a belief that the depicted activity was consensual is not a defence to the making offence unless the accused took "all reasonable steps" to confirm consent and to ensure the material did not misrepresent it as non-consensual; what counts as "reasonable steps" is not defined in the bill.
• Legitimate-purpose exemption — no conviction may result if the conduct had a "legitimate purpose" tied to the administration of justice, science, medicine, education, or art, with these categories left undefined and their application left to the courts.
• Definition scope — "sexual assault material" is defined broadly enough to cover any visual recording depicting non-consensual sexual activity "in an explicit and realistic way," with the boundaries of what qualifies left to judicial interpretation on a case-by-case basis.