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ACTION
ALERT Jan 31, 2003
Bill C20 Child
Protection Bill Fails to Protect Children
- Period!
Bill
C20, the so-called Child Protection Bill, introduced
by Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon in December 2002,
does very little to improve laws to protect children from
pedophiles, predators
and the sex trade industry. The Liberal government and Canadian media has touted
this Bill as being a big leap forward in protecting children.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Canadians are urged
in inform themselves of the facts and to apply a
great deal of "citizen pressure" to correct the gross
shortcomings of this Bill.
Three Major Shortcomings:
#1. The
old child pornography loophole of "artistic merit" is
being replaced by the new loophole of "public good". Why
would any allowance of child pornography be included? Who
or what are they protecting? How can there be any
"public good" in the production, distribution or
possession of any child pornography? The old "artistic
merit" exception became a ridiculous loophole that
Canadians wanted closed. The new "public good"
exception threatens to be an even bigger loophole
in the law against child porn. And
the wording "for a sexual purpose" also will
be abused in defence arguments and must be removed.
There should be
no exceptions for the production, distribution or
possession of child porn - Period!
#2. The proposed Bill fails completely on a most
critical item - the age of consent law for sex with young
teens. At present, an adult of any age can legally have sex with a
teen as young as 14. This Bill does nothing
to change that even though hundreds of thousands of Canadians
have explicitly demanded that the age of consent be raised
to 16 or 18. ( Keep in mind that there has always
been a ' 3
year difference exception' to age of consent laws.
In other words the age of consent laws have never been
used to prosecute teens for having sex with each other.)
In response to the demands of a few thousand, the Liberal
government changed laws to provide legal protection for
animals. Why would they fail to respond to the demands
of hundreds of thousands seeking to protect children?
Remember, age of consent laws are designed to protect
emotionally vulnerable young teens from the abuse and
manipulations of predatory adults. As a result of this very
low age of consent, Canada has become a haven/destination
for those seeking to have sex with young teens. Canada
is failing to protect our teens. The age
of consent laws must be raised to 18 or at the very least
16 - Period!
#3. This Bill does nothing to solve the problem of pathetic sentencing for criminals who commit sex crimes against children. While
the Bill does increase the maximum sentence
for such crimes, that's not the problem. The problem has been the ridiculously low
sentencing being handed out by certain judges
- because of the lack of minimum mandatory sentencing
provisions in these laws. Without such provision,
judges will continue to be free in passing light sentences
including 'conditional sentencing' (no jail or criminal
record at all) for crimes against children .
A provision of tough
mandatory minimum sentencing is absolutely
reasonable and necessary - Period!
Next
week in Parliament Bill C20 and all the issues involved
in that legislation will be discussed
in preparation for second reading. Canadians need to send a message. We
need you to e-mail, phone,
fax and call MPs on this. Do
you want children protected?
What Can You Do?
Phone calls should begin Monday
morning Feb. 3 .
A) Contact the Justice Minister ,
Martin Cauchon and the
Prime Minister's Office and ask that Bill C20 be amended to:
-
remove all loophole wording in the child
porn laws,
-
raise the age of consent for adults
having sex with teens from 14 to 18
(or at least 16)
-
add tough minimum mandatory sentences to all laws dealing with sex crimes against teens or
children.
B) Call your MP's office and ask them to refuse to support this motion until
it is fixed. For your
MP contact info check phone book or click
this link :
Contact
Information:
The
Minister of Justice's Office
Honourable Martin Cauchon
House of Commons
314 West Block
Ottawa, ON K1A
0A6
Bus: 613-995-7691
Email: cauchm@parl.gc.ca |
Right
Honourable Jean Chretien
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca |
Other
Contact Info:
Elsie Wayne,
MP Progressive Conservative
Email: Wayne.E@parl.gc.ca
Stephen Harper, MP Leader of the Canadian Alliance
Art Hanger, MP Canadian Alliance
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