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THE CHAOS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ENFORCEMENT
Canada has a weak child pornography law which
is filled with loopholes that enable paedophiles to escape
punishment for their repugnant activities. Paedophiles are
also aided by liberal judges who have broad discretion to
hand down lenient sentences. The maximum sentence for possessing
child pornography in Canada is five years for possession and
ten years for distribution, but judges frequently only impose
sentences of house arrest or a couple of months in jail. An
example of this is the recent case of Vancouver paedophile,
Robin Sharpe, who was found guilty of possessing 500 photographs
of boys under 12 years of age, in which most boys were displaying
their genital or anal regions. Some photos depicted boys engaged
in explicit sexual activity. The majority of these photographs
were taken by Mr Sharpe himself in Sri Lanka and other Asian
countries. However, Mr. Sharpe received a sentence of only
four months' house arrest.
Further, police forces across the country
are hindered in prosecutions of child pornography cases because
of a lack of resources, training and expertise in regard to
complex internet child pornography cases. Police forces are
also experiencing difficulties in obtaining warrants for searches
and investigation, as well as being encumbered by the requirement
that they provide full disclosure to defence counsels of all
the evidence, not just samples, obtained in their investigations.
Inadequacy of Canadian Enforcement Exposed
The inadequate enforcement of child pornography in Canada
came to light in 1999 when US authorities shut down a company
in Dallas, Texas, which operated a web portal through which
hundreds of child pornography sites could be accessed. The
company made as much as $1.4 million US every month from users
who paid between $15 US and $30 US for monthly access. The
owners of the portal kept an extensive database which revealed
that as many as 300,000 people used credit cards to purchase
child pornography. Of those, 2,300 were Canadians.
In June 2000, Ontario Provincial Police sent
officers to Dallas to retrieve the names of Canadians suspected
of using this web portal. Police across the country were then
given the list of suspects in their localities. To date, however,
fewer than 100 Canadians from the list of 2,300 (less than
5%) have been arrested in Canada. This is in sharp contrast
to 1,500 arrests in the UK, which included the well-known
rock star and guitarist, Peter Townsend of the group, The
Who.
To date, a breakdown of the arrests by Canadian
police officers includes only 14 in Toronto from a list of
200 suspects, Vancouver police have yet to make any arrests
from a list of 80 suspects, and Quebec, with a list of 200
paedophiles, has made no arrests. The reason for the lack
of arrests and follow-through in Canada is due to a number
of factors, including Canadian police forces' lack of financial
resources and manpower, as well as a lack of expertise to
carry out the web investigations. There is also a problem
in that there is an absence of a national strategy to fight
child pornography in Canada.
As well, our courts, which are handing down
lenient sentences, have created additional problems for the
police by insisting upon complicated and detailed search warrants
before searches may be conducted and evidence seized. Contrast
this to other countries, such as the UK, the US, Belgium and
Ireland, where police are able to carry out searches and seizures
based on little more than a one-page affidavit provided by
the police.
Another problem is the strange requirement
in Canada, insisted upon by the Supreme Court of Canada, that
police officers categorize each piece of seized pictures and
photocopy them in order to hand them over to the accused's
lawyer. This came about due to the 1991 decision of the Supreme
Court of Canada in Her Majesty The Queen v. Stinchcombe,
which held that the Crown had a legal duty to release all
the fruits of their investigations in order for justice to
be done. This is not only costly and time-consuming, but it
traumatizes the police officers who must pay a heavy toll
in being forced to look at and photocopy all the thousands
of pictures of children and babies engaged in gruesome sex
acts. For example, Toronto police officers involved in child
pornography are required to see a psychiatrist once every
five months to deal with the trauma in preparing this material
for defence counsels.
What Must be Done to Properly Enforce Canada's
Child Pornography Laws
It is crucial that our child pornography
laws be adequately enforced. This requires that the following
be implemented:
1. A national pornography strategy
must be developed among federal, provincial and territorial
governments and the RCMP. Such a strategy would be similar
to those established in other countries where federal, regional
and municipal police agencies share information, investigate
cases in a similar way, and help train each other.
2. More financial resources must
be available for enforcement of the child pornography law
so that more manpower and officers trained in internet use
will be available for investigations. At present, there
is no adequate training in Canada for police officers in
regard to internet offences.
3. Judges need to hand down stronger
sentences, and the time-consuming disclosure rules that
require police officers to categorize each piece of evidence,
instead of samples for release to defence counsel, must
change.
Canadians must insist that our children be
given our highest priority and protection from child pornographers
who, according to Dr. William Marshall of Queen's University,
not only view this material to encourage themselves, but show
it to their innocent victims to convince them that such activities
are "normal". Child pornography is far from harmless
and is never a so-called "victimless crime." The
victims are vulnerable children. They desperately need our
help.
Please write to:
The Hon. Martin Cauchon
Justice Building
284 Wellington St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
Tel: (613) 992-4621
Fax: (613) 990-7255
Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Demand that a national child pornography
strategy be developed which includes more resources be spent
on increasing police training in enforcement.
Please also demand that our judges be instructed
to hand down tougher sentences to serve as a warning to paedophiles
of the seriousness of their offence. Further, the stringent
requirements for the granting of warrants for search and investigation
must be limited, as well as the time-consuming and costly
disclosure requirements.
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