One of the most consequential updates to Canada's Criminal Code in generations to better protect children and respond to modern threats is now law
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"Predators prey on the most vulnerable among us, committing some of the most horrific crimes imaginable against children. Yesterday, mandatory minimums were restored to help keep criminals behind bars and keep our kids safe. Those protections are now law," said the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. The Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16) received Royal Assent yesterday, as the Government of Canada will continue to move with urgency to keep kids safe as part of our larger commitment to strengthen community safety.
This is one of the most consequential reforms of the Criminal Code in a generation to protect children in the real world and online. These changes will help put child predators behind bars, crack down on online sextortion, strengthen tools to investigate and prosecute child sexual exploitation, protect youth from being recruited into criminal activity, respond to modern threats like non-consensual sexual deepfakes, and ensure mandatory minimum penalties of imprisonment remain strong, enforceable, and constitutional.
Strengthen and restore mandatory minimum sentences
The law ensures that mandatory minimum penalties of imprisonment remain strong, enforceable, and constitutional. The Criminal Code includes approximately 60 offences punishable by mandatory minimum penalties, including numerous serious child sexual offences.
Some mandatory minimums had previously been struck down by courts, meaning that these penalties could no longer be enforced. These changes restore those penalties and ensure that offenders will be sentenced to a period of imprisonment.
At the same time, these changes provide judicial discretion to order another sentence of imprisonment in rare cases where applying the specific mandatory minimum would be grossly disproportionate for the offender before the court. This ensures that mandatory minimum penalties will remain strong, enforceable, and constitutional.
Keep children safe from sexual exploitation and predators
The law gives police, prosecutors, and courts stronger tools to protect children from sexual exploitation, online abuse, and predators who target kids in Canada and abroad. More specifically, the changes:
- increase penalties for serious sexual offences, including sexual assault, indecent exposure, voyeurism, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, including sexual deepfakes, and obtaining sexual services from a person under 18
- crack down on online sextortion by creating new offences for threatening to distribute child sexual abuse and exploitation material and distributing bestiality depictions, which can be used to manipulate children for sexual purposes
- strengthen Canada's ability to prosecute Canadians who sexually abuse or exploit children abroad
- give law enforcement and prosecutors more time to investigate and lay charges by extending the limitation period for prosecuting Internet service providers that fail to meet mandatory reporting requirements from two years to five years
- require Internet service providers to preserve data for 365 days instead of 21 days, helping ensure critical evidence is not deleted before police and prosecutors can act
- protect youth from being recruited, pressured, or groomed into criminal activity by creating a new offence of recruiting youth into crime
In less than a year, Canada's new government has delivered one of the most ambitious criminal justice reform agendas in recent memory, with three major bills to strengthen protections against hate crimes, make bail laws stricter and toughen sentences, better protect victims and survivors, and keep kids safe from predators.
As threats evolve, the Government of Canada will continue to move with urgency to strengthen Canada's laws and keep Canadians safe.
