Fresh off unsubstantiated claims that Canada is a piracy haven, the media is now reporting that Canada is also a "pedophile haven." At least two groups are quoted in a CTV article claiming that Canada has lax laws and should require Internet service providers to take stronger action against pedophile and child porn sites. Moreover, Conservative MP Art Hanger infers that the law should be changed to require ISPs to report sites, even if they are not illegal.
Pedophelia and child pornography are obviously unconscionable and all countries should have strong laws to criminalize such behaviour. To my knowledge, there is no reason to think that Canada falls short in this regard. Not only are there criminal code provisions to address these issues, but Canadian ISPs voluntarily launched the controversial Project Cleanfeed initiative to block child pornography images. Moreover, the OpenNet Initiative summary of Canada and the U.S. leaves no reason to believe that U.S. ISPs face stricter scrutiny or liability for this form of conduct (several U.S. law initiatives have been struck down as unconstitutional). Everyone wants to find effective tools for addressing this issues, but misleading and inaccurate characterizations of Canadian law is simply not the way to do it.
ME
A Canadian Justice Foundation founder is Shawn Howard. Howard is currently an alderman in Airdrie, Alberta and shills for Pengrowth Management as their Director of Public & Government Affairs. Federally, Airdrie is represented by 71 year old american born and educated Conservative MP Myron Thompson.
If I were a cynic: I’d say Shawn Howard is polishing apples in a hope to claim the Conservative nomination when Thompson hangs up his spurs.
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Mr.
Maybe this perception as a “pedophile haven” is due to the John Robin Sharpe case.
Hold on a second…
When is the last time anyone stumbled across a “child porn” site by accident? I think I have the answer: never. They don’t exist.
It’s also not an ISPs job to enforce censorship. We do not need some self-serving, private and back-door tool to be taking things into its own hands.
Not to ignore the problem…
I’d never go so far as to claim that child pornography on the Internet isn’t a problem, but Brent is right to a point. Child porn “sites” aren’t really the problem, to my knowledge, anymore. I get the sense it’s all moved to p2p. Any time I read about it now, police have busted some kind of group that trades and produces this crap internally. It’s pretty easy to bust a website, after all, since it has to be hosted somewhere. Attempts to stop p2p trading are what lead us to the point where some legislators want ISPs to monitor what’s coming in and going out of our private systems. I offer that point in the interest of clarity. I don’t favor such monitoring, but merely establishing the fact that child porn “sites” seem a myth shouldn’t minimize the problem.
That said, I’m really sick and tired of references to Canada as some kind of lawless, liberal haven just north of the goodthinkful idiots down south. I wish we could trade places with the Netherlands sometime, and see what right-wing Americans would have to say about -them- if they only shared a common border. The problem isn’t Canada. The problem is being in proximity to the most Conservative regime this side of the Middle East, that gets freaked out by anything it can’t control.
As p2p moves towards fully-distributed, fully encrypted transfer, the chance of catching a criminal in this way is exceedingly remote. The only way to do it would involve complete surrender of control of the home PC to the government. Surely there must be a better way to tackle the problem of child-pornography. This way will never work, at least, not for long.
These people have no chance of rehabilitation it has been stated for years! so just neuter them. make there sex drive go away and save our children! why protect these pedopiles rights?? what about our childs rights? either that or just execute these sick people who get off on children!
Perverted redneck canadians
I hope all you sick, child diddling canadian rednecks die in a fire.
pedo working at children services
was at a friend the other day when some investigator from children services came about his kid brother and it turns out the investigator was a pedophile as he dealt with me before in the past and fondled me and promised he was going to make it all ok and that i would be back with my parents soon and that never happened and he messed up my life big time and now I am messed up because of him and he is in charge of investigating in calgary?? his name is Brad but I don’t remember his last name the whole system is messed up when children services are the ones in charge of molesting us and there is no place we can turn to
Perverts and pedophiles are rampant in canada
Our chief justices of canada, should feel the pain, terror and injustice our children indure daily. These supreme justices consciously ignore our children. Because these perverts have more rights than the victims , the pervs still antagonize their victims in full view of public. We can instill our human voice to the united nations council and ask that they help all child victims of this horrid and evil abuse on children end today.
slack canadian laws keep these pedophiles in canada
I hope that all theses lawmakers and perverts all burn in hell. Especially since they go hand in hand with devil they serve for now and eternity. Rot in hell you fucken perverts and justices.
A Need for Adequate Screening for Adults working with Children
My brother was molested by his boy scout leader (a child protection worker and volunteer for big brothers and sisters) and my 10 year old sister was raped by her father in the 1980’s. My sister is an alcoholic who struggles every day with what happened to her as a child. My brother has difficulty controlling his anger and it took him years to admit what had happened to him. He laid charges against his rapist but due to a hung jury, and my brother having experienced far too much in the first trial, to pursue another one, the rapist is still free to hurt more young boys. However, 2 other men who were victims of this person’s abuse have laid charges against him and one of the victims is in the trial process now. My hope is that finally the system will shut the man away so that he stops hurting children. Pedophiles need to be locked away and when they are out, as unfortunately they will be, we can’t let them just be shuffled to a new place where they can live in anonimity and hurt more children. These people DO NOT CHANGE! They are sick people but there is no magic pill that will make them stop what they are doing. It was believed that after my brother’s rapist moved away from our town, and started working elsewhere as a child protection worker, he molested another young boy. The boy came from a troubled home life so the child protection worker/my brother’s rapist, offered for the teen to move in with him. Within months the teen committed suicide and the story from people close to him was that he did it because he was being molested by the man who took him in. I am not a devoutly religious person but I pray that the screening processes for child protection workers and others with direct contact with young children are better than they were in the 80s, though the stories above make me think that they are not. I also pray that those people who have been victims, know that they can reach out for help – if not to a child protection worker or a religious leader they feel they can trust, then to a family doctor or the police. Just a kid…I am so sorry for your experience. Reach out to someone you can trust if you can. I hope you find some peace in your life.