The provincial government is proposing legislation to help Manitobans whose intimate images are distributed without their consent.
The proposed law would provide a new civil court remedy and other new resources to help people remove such images from public display.
“Social media and the Internet have made it easier to harass or shame a person with an intimate image,” said Attorney General Gord Mackintosh.
The Intimate Images Protection Act, as it’s being called, would apply to situations often referred to as “revenge porn” or “sexting coercion.”
The act would build on recent changes to the federal Criminal Code that make it an offence to distribute intimate images without consent.
The new provincial legislation would allow victims to pursue legal action and sue for damages in civil court, Mackintosh said, adding it would also establish a framework to help people resolve the matter out of court or contact police to pursue potential criminal charges.
Once the legislation is in place, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection would be the first contact for Manitobans of any age whose intimate images have been shared without consent.
The act would apply when the person in the intimate image is identifiable and nude or engaged in sexual activity, had a reasonable expectation of privacy at the time it was recorded and did not consent to it being shared, Mackintosh said.
It would also address situations where other people obtain intimate images of a person and distribute them without consent, digitally or in any other format, he added.
At the same time, new tools are planned to help schools and parents better identify, prevent and respond to “sexting” – texting of a sexual nature – and cyberbullying.
“These new educational resources will help students better understand the dangers of sharing intimate images and give teachers and parents the tools and information they need to help keep students safe and support youth affected by sexting or cyberbullying,” said Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum.
Underfunding?
The opposition NDP is taking aim at the Saskatchewan Party government over education funding.
The NDP said one school division, Prairie Spirit School Division outside Saskatoon, is laying off 21 educational assistants and cutting programs such as pre-school and early learning.
Prairie Spirit will make further cuts throughout 2015-16 in response to rapid enrollment growth, the NDP said, blaming the provincial government’s refusal to budget for a mid-year funding adjustment to accommodate new students at school divisions.
“Saskatchewan has had a decade of resource wealth,” said NDP deputy leader Trent Wotherspoon. “We should absolutely be seeing our schools and our students thrive with fantastic programming, smaller class sizes and the capacity to give every child the help and attention they need to be their best. But this government has refused to prioritize education. So, we see cuts to programs and layoffs in critical positions.”
Transparency
The Manitoba government is introducing legislation designed to strengthen the Office of the Children’s Advocate, to make it more independent and increase transparency of the child welfare system.
The proposed legislation would create a stand-alone children’s advocate act and increase the transparency of the child welfare system by expanding the office’s ability to report on trends and systemic issues along with recommendations to improve services for children and families in Manitoba.
The new act would give the office greater authority to publicaly share reports that include non-identifying information on individual cases, as well as identifying information with the consent of the parties involved and in instances when the child’s name and identifying information has already been made public.
The steps stem from an inquiry into the 2005 death of Phoenix Sinclair, 5, who was murdered by her mother and stepfather “after slipping through the cracks of the child welfare system,” as CBC put it.
