Prohibit public recording of vulnerable people

AI summary

Petitioners ask the government to add to the Criminal Code an offence prohibiting knowingly recording in public and publishing recordings of persons known to be experiencing homelessness, mental-health crises, or severe substance impairment.

AI summaries describe petitioners’ requests and claims. Consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada Houseless individuals and those that struggle with mental health are especially vulnerable to exploitation given their circumstances; The law currently allows these vulnerable people to be filmed and posted on social media without their knowledge and consent often while experiencing crisis; This practice puts at risk the safety of this community by allowing those that may mean them harm, a tool to find them. This is especially relevant considering that this population that has a high number of domestic violence survivors and is at higher risk for sexual exploitation; This act can increase stigmatization and of these groups by showing only snapshots of people suffering or in crisis, with no additional context or education; and This community is unlikely to have the resources to seek out civil remedies and criminal remedies against harassment and thus should be afforded extra protection. We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to create a new provision in the Criminal Code that would make it an offence to knowingly record in public, a person the recorder knows is experiencing “prescribed circumstance of significant vulnerability” for the purposes of publishing or distributing that recording to the public.“Prescribed circumstance of significant vulnerability” include: (a) experiencing homelessness; (b) experiencing a mental-health crisis or other acute psychological crisis; (c) experiencing significant impairment resulting from alcohol, drugs, or another substance; and (d) experiencing another prescribed circumstance that substantially increases the person's vulnerability to exploitation or serious harm from public exposure.

Government response

No government response is available yet.