Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime

Manitoba law would make not reporting child porn a crime

Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2007

WINNIPEG -- Manitoba is set to become the first province in Canada to make failure to report suspected cases of child pornography possession a crime.

Legislation introduced Wednesday will make illegal any failure to report anyone who may possess videos, photographs or online computer material of child sexual abuse.

Failure to alert authorities would result in a maximum two-year jail term and a fine of $50,000.

"Child pornography in any form is an affront to humanity," said Gord Mackintosh, Manitoba's Minister of Family Services and Housing.

"It's a crime scene of a heinous sexual assault."

He said the new rules are meant to encourage people to see child porn as abuse as well as evidence of a crime.

However, critics said the new law will be merely window-dressing if it is not backed by adequate enforcement, and even the province's NDP government and police acknowledged it will be a difficult charge to prove.

It is already illegal not to report suspected cases of physical and sexual abuse of a child -- although no one in Manitoba has ever been charged with the crime.

The new law includes computer repair technicians, Internet service providers and even friends, family and spouses who happen upon images of child sexual abuse.

Tips would be funnelled through cybertips.ca, a Winnipeg-based hotline operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

It assesses the tips and passes them on to the proper authorities for investigation.

Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the law will help raise awareness about the public's duty to alert police if they stumble across photographs or videos showing a child being abused, hopefully before the images are reproduced hundreds of thousands of times on the Internet.

"This sends a strong message that child sexual abuse is your business and you have a responsibility to take action and report it," she said.

A group speaking for victims of crime praised the legislation and called on Ottawa to make the law national.

"It's very exciting and we're very pleased, but this needs to go coast to coast" said Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime.

She said most Canadians would be "shocked" to learn that Internet service providers and technicians are not required to report child pornography.

"Most people, I think, would be appalled to find this requirement isn't in place everywhere already."

Tory justice critic Gerald Hawranik said his party supports the intent of the bill. However, he is worried it will gather dust and never be used.

"What guarantee do we have that there is going to be some enforcement and that it will make a difference?" Mr. Hawranik said. "It's nice to stand on a soapbox and huff and puff about this feel-good legislation, but there better be some teeth there."

Winnipeg police and RCMP officers with the Integrated Child Exploitation unit said they could not think of a case offhand where they would have liked to prosecute someone who failed to alert police to a child-pornography collector.

Instead, RCMP Staff Sergeant Kathie King said the idea is to make it easier to go after the perpetrators and protect children from abuse before it happens.