Bill C-463 (Historical)

Putting Victims First Act

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (orders of prohibition and orders restricting publication)

This bill was last introduced in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session, which ended in September 2019.

Sponsor

Arnold Viersen  Conservative

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 19, 2019
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to
(a) permit a court to make an order prohibiting an offender who has been convicted of sexual exploitation from engaging in certain activities that would involve them being in a pos­ition of trust or authority towards persons under the age of 18;
(b) establish a process that allows a person whose identity as a victim or witness is protected by an order restricting publication — or, if the person is dead, a member of their fam­ily — to apply for the order to be revoked or varied; and
(c) add offences in relation to trafficking in persons to the list of offences in respect of which the accused must show cause why their pre-trial detention in custody is not justified.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Putting Victims First ActRoutine Proceedings

June 19th, 2019 / 3:55 p.m.
See context

Conservative

Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-463, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (orders of prohibition and orders restricting publication).

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to introduce Bill C-463, putting victims first. While the Criminal Code guides our justice system, sometimes it does not necessarily put victims at the heart of it.

With this bill, we would like to change section 161 to protect children up to age 17. Currently, it only protects them to age 15.

We would also like to establish a method to allow a victim to remove the publication ban on his or her own name. I am thinking in particular of the case of Rehtaeh Parsons, a young girl from the east coast who committed suicide and was subsequently the subject of an investigation. Later on, after it was cleared up, her family was unable to speak about the case because there was a publication ban. The bill would allow her family to lift the publication ban without having to go to court.

The last piece of the bill would put a reverse onus bail restriction on people who have trafficked other people.

I think all three proposals are common sense. I look forward to reintroducing the bill in the upcoming Parliament and to seeing it pass forthwith.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)