Bill No. 27 - Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act. - Third Reading
MS. CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Queens-Shelburne and thank the member for Pictou West, and thank you to the member for Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River and thank you to the minister. This has been an emotional session and I think we're at the penultimate bill and we're capping it off with more emotions which, I think I said on the first day I rose and spoke in this House, I think it's a good thing if we can channel it appropriately.
I want to thank my colleagues today for bringing real stories into this House. I think all of the members who have spoken today have brought real, specific, poignant examples of what this bill really means, how it will really impact people. Most importantly, it brought the story or Rehtaeh Parsons back into this House, which was the initiating reason for this conversation to begin with.
As others have mentioned, we had a law, the law was struck down, found to be unconstitutional. There was a legislative gap so we have another bill before us. I think it's a step, I think we have yet to see, particularly given the minister's comments today, how it will unfold in practice. It's unclear at this point what the actual duties of CyberSCAN will be, notwithstanding the amendment made by my colleague, the member for Pictou West, the wording was changed somewhat. We'll wait and see.
That being said, I'll just echo the core concern that I have as we watch this bill go forward which others have spoken to, which is access to justice. I was very happy to hear the minister say in his opening remarks that that is something the department is taking seriously, something that the courts are looking at. As I said before, I do think this is an issue which could be solved outside of legislation, that there could be some streamlined processes, bureaucratically, and with the courts that could greatly relieve some of the core access to justice issues that have been raised by David Fraser, and others in this House. We will watch eagerly to see if that is the case.
I'll reiterate the other core objection we had around this bill, which was the access to justice in particular of a minor. We have been assured by the department that a minor could in fact bring an action under this piece of legislation via the civil procedure rules. There could be a litigation guardian appointed, but I feel compelled to point out that that's complicated. People may not know that it's possible, that guardian has to apply to the court. It's complicated. So, it's possible - anything's possible - but it's not easy, so I would urge the minister and the department to just explore other avenues to make sure that young people, young women in particular who are the most vulnerable and who I believe are at the heart of this Act, are able to avail themselves of its protections, and I think the other members have spoken eloquently as to why that's important.
I'll reiterate the comments around consultation. We would have liked to see more extensive consultation. The minister has spoken a lot about the restorative justice approach that the CyberSCAN unit takes. However, to my knowledge, there were no restorative justice experts consulted in this version of drafting the bill, and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. It's one example of where I think a more robust consultation process could have informed this bill and brought some more interesting issues to the fore.
Ultimately, what we need to fix - legislation is a blunt tool, the courts are a blunt tool. As someone said, I believe it was my colleague, only 10 cases got to the courts via the CyberSCAN unit. We know that all of these issues, the issues that the member for Queens-Shelburne spoke to, the issues that my colleague, the member for Pictou West, spoke to, their personal experiences - those may have been remedied in a court, but they definitely would have been helped by more resources on the ground.
So, regardless of what happens with this legislation, I would urge this government to continue to and to step up their investment in organizations that help, in this case vulnerable women and girls, who need access to victim services, who need access to abuse services, who need access to counselling because, Mr. Speaker, those are the places where these victims will most often avail themselves of help. It is for that reason that I believe we must fund those kinds of services to the greatest degree possible.
I want to close by quoting my colleague, the member for Pictou West, because I was struck when she said that love is not a luxury, it's a necessity. I think that there is no more beautiful sentiment that we could take away with us as we think about this bill, as we think about the impact that bullying has, but to flip it on its head and think about what kind of world do we want.
We're often criticized on this side of the House by the government for only talking about the bad stuff. With due respect, I think that's sort of our job but, notwithstanding, it's also important to talk about what it is that we want to achieve, what are the good things, and I think that that was very elegantly summed up by the member when she said, love is not a luxury it's a necessity. So, let's work at providing that necessity to everyone. Thank you.
Published by Order of the Legislature by Hansard Reporting Services and printed by the Queen's Printer.
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