On the repeal of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act under the prior government, I testified before the Senate about that. It came, I would say, at the most ironic time in history. It was a time when everyone was talking about the impact of online hate and harassment. Canada was uniquely placed in having a federal human rights provision that allowed for a tribunal rather than a court to respond to online hate and harassment as a human rights issue, hate and harassment that's identity based. We were uniquely and proudly situated in Canada to have had that remedy.
Right at the time, I would have said, when the remedy had its most meaning, when most experts were saying the way to respond to this was not going to be primarily through criminal law remedies but through a human rights approach, Canada chose to repeal section 13. I think that was an unfortunate decision. It hobbled Canada's ability to deal effectively with online hate and harassment and to offer a variety of responses. Also, it's not just that. It's the symbolic recognition that what's underlying these attacks is harassment, discrimination, and prejudice based on identity.
To me, the reinstatement of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act would make a lot of sense at this time, because, with all due respect, it made no sense to repeal it at the time that it was repealed.
In terms of civil remedies, I think one of the more interesting civil remedies that I've looked at recently is in Manitoba, where they are using the body that runs Cybertip to assist those whose intimate images are posted online and to get the images taken down in a quick way. I think that's a very sort of meaningful support mechanism. It's one of the number one issues for those who are victims of non-consensual distribution: to get the image down as quickly as possible.
None of that is to negate the criminal law provision, but these things do something different. I think having a panoply of different legal responses that suit different people in different situations and their abilities and needs makes a lot of sense.