Carol Todd holds a photo of her late teenage daughter Amanda Todd, who died by suicide in 2012, and the necklace she was wearing in the school photo, in New Westminster, B.C., on Oct. 14, 2022.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The mother of Amanda Todd, a teen who died by suicide after falling victim to cyberbullying, is urging MPs to end a standoff in the House of Commons that is holding up a bill that would force tech companies to swiftly take down online child-abuse material.
In an interview, Carol Todd said she has been waiting for 12 years since the death of her daughter for legislation to tackle the exploitation of children online and is frustrated the bill may not become law before the election because of lengthy parliamentary delaying tactics.
The Amanda Todd Legacy Society is among dozens of organizations, including children’s hospitals, to sign a letter to MPs Thursday urging them to end the delay to Bill C-63, which has been stalled for more than a month in the Commons by a Conservative-led filibuster.
The groups are concerned that the filibuster means the bill, which has taken four years of preparation, will run out of time before the coming election. They want MPs to send it to committee, where it would be studied and likely amended before moving to the Senate.
“The filibuster that is happening right now and holding everything up, it’s so frustrating. It’s just wasting time,” Ms. Todd said in an interview. “I’ve waited 12 years for this because on Day 1 of Amanda’s death I knew that things needed to change in terms of laws and legislation.”
Amanda Todd was 15 when she died by suicide at her home in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam in October, 2012, weeks after posting a video, which amassed millions of views, describing being harassed by an online predator who blackmailed her into sharing intimate images.
Last year a Dutch court handed out the longest prison term possible to Aydin Coban, who spent more than two years tormenting Amanda. He was found guilty of the online sexual extortion of 33 girls and young women, and gay men.
In an interview, Ms. Todd said “there’s no time any more to wait for action and it would be really embarrassing for Canada if a new election was called and this bill died.”
Bill c-63 was introduced in February and in September had a short second reading debate in the House of Commons. The filibuster began days later. Since then, no government bills have been debated.
Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said she was “incredibly concerned and very frustrated” by the holdup of the bill and hoped the NDP would help end it.
“It’s very depressing this dysfunction in Parliament is causing this delay,” she said. “We are really hoping the NDP steps up and expedites the bill. We can’t even debate and give it the proper democratic process.”
Ms. McDonald said she had had a “very, very positive” meeting with Jagmeet Singh, the NDP Leader, about the bill and he was “incredibly receptive and supportive” of it.
The online harms bill would introduce measures to make platforms swiftly tackle material that sexually victimizes a child, including intimate content shared without consent or used to bully a child or induce them to harm themselves.
It also includes stiffer penalties for hate crimes, including life imprisonment for advocating genocide and sentences of up to five years for other hate propaganda offences. Civil liberties groups have warned the proposed changes to the Criminal Code risk stifling free speech, as do changes to the Human Rights Act.
Some of the signatories of the letter, which urges MPs to “work together to move this Bill to committee” and says “the delay must end,” support splitting the bill. They think that jettisoning controversial changes to the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act would improve the chances of the core of the bill, designed to tackle online harm including child exploitation, becoming law.
Taylor Owen, director of the Center for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University, which was a signatory to the letter, called on the NDP to help unblock the parliamentary logjam by supporting a motion to end the filibuster.
He said the filibuster is putting Bill C-63 “in jeopardy” and at this stage the best way to ensure that it passes is to split it, removing controversial changes to the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act that have raised concerns about freedom of expression.
“It just needs a time allocation motion to get to committee,” he said.
Chantalle Aubertin, spokesperson for Justice Minister Arif Virani, said “for a month now, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois have allowed Parliament to be ground to a halt by Pierre Poilievre’s childish tactics.”
“We share the dismay of parents and advocates across the country that this Conservative political stunt, which the NDP and the Bloc have refused to end, has stalled progress on essential legislation to protect our kids and hold social-media platforms accountable,” she said. “The NDP and the Bloc could end this obstruction tomorrow.”
But NDP House Leader Peter Julian said “the only parties that are holding the House of Commons in paralysis mode are the Conservatives and the Liberals.”
“They need to stop with the games so we can get back to focusing on fixing the housing crisis, our overburdened health care system, and to tackling important legislation to protect children from online harms,” he said.
Andrew Scheer, Conservative House Leader, said Justin Trudeau could immediately end the paralysis by releasing documents, as ordered by Parliament.
“The Liberals have only themselves to blame for not prioritizing their own legislation, having introduced Bill C-63 in February and stalling for over three months to debate it, only doing so in June,” he added.