Canadian Law To Make It Illegal Not To Report CP

HALIFAX -- A proposed bill that would make it a crime not to report child pornography in Nova Scotia is a step closer to becoming law, although the opposition is far from providing enthusiastic support.

Although the bill passed second reading in the legislature Thursday, the Liberals openly questioned the value of a law they point out police didn't ask for.

Introduced at the beginning of the fall session, Bill 187 makes it mandatory for anyone who comes across child pornography to tell police. Failure to do so could bring a maximum fine of $2,000 and up to six months in jail.

At the time, Justice Minister Cecil Clarke said the goal was to give police another tool to combat Internet child porn, while encouraging people to come forward in the knowledge they would be protected.

And while police welcomed the legislation as useful, they admitted they couldn't recall cases where someone had seen disturbing images and hadn't reported it.

In the house, Liberal justice critic Michel Samson wondered whether the bill was brought forward as a wedge issue by the governing Conservatives to make the opposition appear "soft on child porn" if they didn't support it.

"Is this bill actually going to make a dent in child pornography here in this province, or is it merely a smoke screen to somehow try to convince Nova Scotians that something is being done?" said Samson.

The Liberal critic added he would take the government more seriously if there were measures including more funding to boost the manpower needed by police units tasked with fighting Internet child porn.

"Providing a tool to the police that has no bite is no tool at all," said Samson. "And that's why we're a bit suspicious of this bill and the fact that the police never requested it."

NDP critic Bill Estabrooks told reporters he's interested to hear what interveners, including police, have to say during the upcoming law amendments process.

"If this is a piece of legislation that's going to result in more charges and more convictions then it's something that of course we're going to support," said Estabrooks, who conceded he was well aware of the politics surrounding the issue.

Meanwhile, Clarke maintained the bill is a sincere attempt to assist police tackle what is a growing problem in society.

Clarke said that according to a national survey by Toronto police in 2007, more than 5,000 "unique Internet protocol addresses" had traded in child pornographic images in Nova Scotia.

"I don't think any effort that you can take should be dismissed as being political or ill-thought," said Clarke.

If the bill passes third reading in the house, Nova Scotia would join Manitoba, which passed a similar law in 2007.

Ontario also recently introduced legislation.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...113?hub=Canada

Wasnt this part of that law they were looking at enacting partly due to Dawgy getting caught in Canada with all that child porn on his laptop when he went to there to have sex with that kid a couple of years ago or am i thinking of something else?

Regards,

Lee