Today, the House of Commons votes on Bill C-13 which ties the government’s response to cyber-bullying and online misogyny to increased state surveillance and law enforcement powers more generally. Battered Women’s Support Services joined advocates and organizations concerned with women’s equality online and is calling Members of Parliament to vote against Bill C-13. We’re demanding accountability for cyber-stalkers and harassers that does not unduly infringe privacy rights.
We ask all concerned members of our community to endorse below Open Letter to Members of Parliament. Your voice does matter!
If you don’t want Bill C-13 to pass, join our joint action today! Please leave your name (and if you wish, an affiliation) here and your name will be added to the endorsers list.
Learn more about #CyberMisogyny:
Cyber-Violence Against Women: Recognizing and Resisting Gender Violence in the Online Environment
An Open Letter to Members of Parliament
On Monday, October 20, you will be asked to vote on Bill C-13: The Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act. We the undersigned individuals and organizations concerned with women’s equality online call on you to vote against this flawed piece of legislation and demand accountability for cyber-stalkers and harassers that does not unduly infringe privacy rights.
Since Bill C-13 was first tabled in November 2013, dozens of community organizations, internet privacy experts, lawyers, academics, and the country’s Privacy Commissioner have called on the federal government to split the bill into two, and to pass the provisions that address the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and gender-based hate speech online. The provisions expanding warrantless access to internet subscriber information, a practice recently held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Spencer, must, at the very least, be subjected to additional scrutiny and analysis by constitutional experts.
Addressing the non-consensual distribution of intimate images – a form of sexualized violence targeted mainly at women and girls – is absolutely critical. While a criminal law response is only one part of the solution, the provisions of Bill C-13 making it an offence to share an intimate image of someone without their consent are a critical component of accountability for those who would use the Internet to shame, harass, and intimidate women and girls. Making the non-consensual distribution of intimate images a criminal offence is a much-needed and overdue legal reform. Passage of such a law would send a strong message to would-be abusers and hackers that this behaviour is criminal in nature and will not be ignored. It would also strengthen the legal response to these kinds of cases, and encourage victims to come forward when they have been targeted. Had such targeted legislation been proposed, we would have been pleased to support it, and have little doubt it would have passed easily into law.
Instead, however, Bill C-13 gives police easier access to the metadata that internet service providers keep on their customers, and would give immunity to companies that turn this kind of information over to police without a warrant. As you have heard from countless experts already, including some of the undersigned organizations,1 these provisions are deeply problematic and are likely unconstitutional.
The safety and security of women and girls and their right to express themselves online require that police and the criminal justice system are equipped with the tools they need to fight cyber misogyny and gender-based abuse online. However, Bill C-13 goes too far. As Carol Todd, the mother of a teen girl who was subjected to months of online harassment and sexual extortion before committing suicide as a result, told the parliamentary committee reviewing this bill: “We should not have to choose between our privacy and our safety. We should not have to sacrifice our children’s privacy rights to make them safe from cyberbullying, ‘sextortion’ and revenge pornography.”
Please vote against Bill C-13 on Monday, and demand instead a legislative response to cyber misogyny that holds online harassers and abusers accountable, without undue sacrifice of internet users’ privacy rights.
Yours truly,
Action Canada for Population and Development
Amata Transition House
Atira Women’s Resource Society
Battered Women’s Support Services
BC Society of Transition Houses
Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Canadian Federation for Sexual Health
National Association of Women and the Law
Native Women’s Association of Canada
Parent Support Services Society of BC
Salmo Community Resource Services
Second Story Women’s Centre
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter
West Coast Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund
Ann Rauhala, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, Ryerson University
Colleen Westendorf, Former co-organizer for SlutWalk Toronto, feminist, writer
Emma Woolley, columnist on gender & technology with the Globe and Mail
Liane Balaban, founder of Crankytown.com
Jarrah Hodge, Canadian feminist blogger and Editor of Gender-Focus.com
Jennie Faber, Director, Dames Making Games
Jesse Hirsh, President Metaviews.ca
Julie S. Lalonde, advocate for sexual assault survivors
Lyndsay Kirkham, Professor of English, Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Humber College
Sarah Ratchford, Lady Business columnist, Vice Canada
Soraya Chemaly, writer and activist
Steph Guthrie, feminist advocate, founder of Women in Toronto Politics
Tracey Young, MSW, RSW, Social work advocate, Catalyst Enterprises BC
Joyce Pielou, BSW, Child and Family Counsellor*
Judy Fleming*
Charan Gill, CEO, Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS)*
Alison Mills, feminist activist*
*Signed on after letter was sent to MPs and published online.
If you could do something to end violence against girls and women, wouldn’t you?
