Mr. Chair, I would like to move the following motion: That the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1, recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with Bill C-273, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (cyberbullying), because: Bill C-273 raises criminal policy and drafting concerns; Parliamentary review of the bullying issue is still on-going and legislation to address this matter is pre-mature, and; The overwhelming majority of witnesses appearing before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights have raised concerns with this legislation.
I believe we can all agree that cyberbullying is truly tragic and has very negative effects. There have been far too many suicides. In fact, just one is one too many. However, a multi-dimensional approach must definitely be adopted to address this social evil. We have heard about criminalization on many occasions.
We heard that criminalization of this sort of conduct is not what is necessary to curb the harm that it has created. None of us should tolerate cyberbullying; that's for sure. From this perspective, I guess we could say that Bill C-273 has helped us focus on this very important social issue, and certainly the member for Vancouver Centre should be congratulated for her efforts in focusing our attention on this very important problem. However, that said, Bill C-273 seeks to use criminal law to respond to conduct that is primarily not criminal. We've heard about being in the moment and not having criminal intent, and given the intent that Bill C-273 may be said to be targeting—bullying that constitutes criminal conduct—its proposed amendments are redundant and inconsistent and may even be said to be problematic when it comes to the Criminal Code.
The Criminal Code prohibits criminal bullying through existing provisions such as criminal harassment, uttering threats, and defamatory libel, to name a few. Bill C-273's proposed amendments to section 264, on criminal harassment, and section 298, on defamation, to clarify that they can be committed over the Internet or via computer, are not needed. This is because criminal law generally does not distinguish between means of mode used to commit crime, and certainly, as Mr. Wilks pointed out, the sections are wide enough to encompass this. So it's in essence not necessary, and for that reason, Mr. Chair, this is the motion that I'm proposing.