Liberals taking ‘fresh’ look at online harms bill, justice minister says
Global News
Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the federal government plans to take a "fresh" look at its online harms legislation over the summer.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the federal government plans to take a “fresh” look at its online harms legislation over the summer but it’s not clear yet exactly what the bill will look like when it is reintroduced.
It would be the Liberals third attempt to pass legislation to address harmful behaviour online.
Fraser told The Canadian Press in an interview that the government hasn’t decided whether to rewrite or simply reintroduce the Online Harms Act, which was introduced in 2024 but did not pass.
He said Canadians can expect measures addressing deepfakes and child exploitation “to be included in legislative reforms coming up in the near future.”
In their election platform, the Liberals promised to make the distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes a criminal offence. They also pledged to introduce a bill to protect children from online sexploitation and extortion, and to give law enforcement and prosecutors additional tools to pursue those crimes.
Fraser said the growth of artificial intelligence is influencing the discussions.
The spread of generative AI has changed both the online space and everyday life since the federal government first introduced the legislation.
“We will have that in mind as we revisit the specifics of online harms legislation,” he added. “The world changes and governments would be remiss if they didn’t recognize that policy needs to shift.”
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