{"id":194716,"date":"2025-10-07T07:10:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194716\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T07:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:10:15","slug":"b-c-looks-to-strengthen-intimate-images-law-with-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/194716\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. looks to strengthen intimate images law with amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British Columbia government is strengthening legislation that protects people whose intimate images<\/a> have been shared without their consent, a crime Attorney General Niki Sharma described as a form of sexualized violence.<\/p>\n

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Sharma told a news conference as the fall legislative session got underway in Victoria on Monday that she would table a bill to amend the province\u2019s Intimate Images Protection Act, which came into force in January 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharing someone else\u2019s intimate images without consent is a crime. Whether it is done with the goal of extorting money, blackmailing someone, or as a tool for emotional abuse, it is wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The bill allows cabinet to raise the maximum amount of money victims can seek from abusers through the Civil Resolution Tribunal, and Sharma said she would recommend it be set at $75,000, a figure 14 times higher than the current limit.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re adding more ways for victims to get justice, the justice that they deserve, and ensure that they can receive better compensation for the harms that they\u2019ve endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sharma said the Civil Resolution Tribunal is handling 381 cases related to intimate images and nearly 700 people have reached out to the province\u2019s dedicated support service since the legislation was passed.<\/p>\n

She said victims are often left feeling ashamed and many \u201csuffer in silence,\u201d choosing not to pursue legal action against perpetrators because of the stigma associated with creating intimate images.<\/p>\n

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The blame for sexualized violence must be shifted from victims to perpetrators, \u201cwhere it squarely belongs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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The proposed amendment sends the message that there are consequences for sharing someone\u2019s images and those responsible will be punished, Sharma said.<\/p>\n

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Canada needs \u201cbetter Criminal Code laws\u201d related to the sexual extortion of children, in particular, she said, noting perpetrators in online sextortion cases are often located outside the country, making it harder to charge them with the crime.<\/p>\n

The government is also tabling a new law to prevent and respond to sexual violence on post-secondary campuses at the fall legislative session.<\/p>\n

B.C. has required public post-secondary institutions to have sexual violence policies since 2017, and Minister of Post-Secondary Education Jessie Sunner said the proposed changes would \u201cclose gaps\u201d in the current framework.<\/p>\n

She said the new proposals include more \u201crobust\u201d annual reporting requirements and expanding the scope of sexual violence policies beyond students to include faculty, employees, contractors, volunteers and board members at institutions.<\/p>\n

The changes would also improve support for survivors by providing institutions with the authority to share information about \u201cinterim measures and case outcomes\u201d with them, Sunner told the news conference.<\/p>\n

Alongside the act, Sunner said B.C. was releasing a new post-secondary sexual violence action plan with a commitment to 12 actions, including strengthening prevention through training and improving collection data and reporting.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British Columbia government is strengthening legislation that protects people whose intimate images have been shared without their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,2169,43,71930,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-194716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-intimate-images","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}