e-4700 (Justice)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• Measures currently in place to protect Canadians from the dissemination of non-consensual pornography may fall short and be out of pace with technological advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI);
• With the rise of programs and applications augmented by AI, images and videos, virtually indistinguishable from reality, can be generated for distribution without consent;
• Canada’s determination of what constitutes an intimate image may not cover this AI-generated intimate content and may open Canadians to attack without legal protection;
• Existing criminal laws were enacted to protect vulnerable Canadians, particularly young women, from the distribution of non-consensual digital content;
• In 2013, Rehtaeh Parsons, a 17-year-old Nova Scotian, tragically died after an attempted suicide when classmates electronically disseminated photographs of her being allegedly gang raped;
• In 2012, a 15-year-old British Columbia girl, Amanda Todd, committed suicide after experiencing assault, extreme bullying and blackmail related to the non-consensual online distribution of photos of her breasts; and
• Now, further protections must be implemented to reduce the gap between technological advances and the outpaced ability of Canadian lawmakers to protect vulnerable Canadians from the dissemination of non-consensual digital content.