Simon Jolin-Barrette announced Wednesday evening, in an original manner to say the least, that the Quebec government was preparing to legislate on the sharing of intimate images without consent.
In a video published on the social networks of the Minister of Justice, we can see a text message saying “Little glimpse of my evening yesterday ;)”, followed by a blurred image of a person appearing to be naked on which s gradually displays the text: “1 in 5 teenagers have already received an intimate image from a person who did not consent”. Then, Mr. Jolin-Barrette appears on video to announce that the CAQ government intends to tackle the problem as of Thursday, calling the sharing of intimate images without consent a scourge.
“It could be your daughter, your son, your sister. It only takes one text message to break someone,” the minister says in the video.
A bill will be tabled Thursday by Mr. Jolin-Barrette. The bill is entitled “An Act to counter the sharing of intimate images without consent and to improve the protection and support in civil matters of victims of violence”.
Cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images are on the rise, according to Statistics Canada. The census group indicates that the number of cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images increased from 726 in 2019 to 1,168 in 2023.
But it is above all the sextortion that can result from it that has exploded. Still according to the latest data published by the federal agency, the number of cases of sextortion reported to the police in Canada has jumped by nearly 300% in almost a decade. Much of this increase has been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sextortion is a crime that came to the attention of Canadians when a 15-year-old British Columbia girl committed suicide in 2012 after being harassed by a bully hiding behind his anonymity.
With information from Brieanna Charlebois
To watch on video