I think what we should be trying to do is drive to recommendations that effect change. One of the frustrations I've had over the course of my hot-minute career is the weekly request for an interview: How do you feel about being a woman in politics, blah blah blah? I have yet to have an interview to respond to substantive changes that would improve some of these issues, so I'd like to go to recommendations.
The CBC reported about two weeks ago that the RCMP was recommending stronger measures to protect members of Parliament from online harassment and abuse. My reaction was that if you can't protect me, how can you protect other Canadian women? We know that online harassment is a behaviour that escalates into physical violence. It creates anxiety, lack of productivity, impacts on the family and so on. I'd like to focus recommendations on ways to prevent that writ large.
There are three recommendations that I'd like the committee to consider. The first is that the loophole, the grey area under Canada's current intimate image distribution laws that does not explicitly include deepfakes, be closed, and that the language be put in the Criminal Code, particularly ahead of the next federal election.
Would you both agree with that recommendation?