Quebec bill aims to stop people from sharing intimate images without consent

QUEBEC CITY — The Quebec government tabled a bill on Thursday that aims to give victims a simpler and faster way to stop intimate photos and videos of them from being shared without their consent.

“Sharing intimate images without consent is a scourge,” Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette told reporters at the legislature after introducing the legislation. “All it takes is one text message to break a person, to break their self-esteem, to break their sense of security, to break their trust in others.”

The bill would allow people to fill out a form online or at a courthouse and quickly obtain an order from a Quebec judge. Offenders can be ordered to stop sharing the image or footage, have it destroyed, or de-index a hyperlink to the image or video. Jolin-Barrette said it should take hours or a few days for an application to be processed and an order to enter into force.

“We fill in the form. The judge receives it and processes the request as an urgent matter,” he said. “In this kind of situation, it’s a race against time. The longer it takes to destroy the image, the more likely it is to circulate, and the more devastating the consequences can be.”

Failure to comply comes with stiff penalties — with fines up to $5,000 to $50,000 per day. Those amounts are doubled for subsequent offences. A person may also be jailed for a maximum of 18 months.

“Any visual or sound recording or live broadcast is considered an image for the purposes of this act,” the bill reads, outlining that it covers content that is published, sold, communicated or advertised.

The bill also covers pornography websites on which videos are uploaded involving people who have not consented to being filmed.

If a person represented in an image is deceased, a close relative may file the application for a court order. People aged 14 or older can file the applications themselves or give their consent to another person to file on their behalf.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

The Canadian Press