Open for signatureElectronice-7621 · Parliament 45

Criminal Code ban on recordings

Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to create a Criminal Code offence banning knowingly recording in public and publishing recordings of people known to be experiencing specified vulnerabilities (e.g. homelessness, mental-health or substance crises).

Why we would sign this petition

Creates legal protection that could deter recording and distribution of images of people experiencing crises, reducing risk of targeted harassment or exploitation.
Helps prevent viral snapshots that stigmatize vulnerable groups by restricting public sharing without context or consent.
Provides a criminal remedy for people unlikely to pursue civil suits, offering an accessible enforcement mechanism to protect dignity and safety.

Why we wouldn’t sign this petition

Could restrict legitimate newsgathering, public-interest reporting and bystander documentation, raising free-expression and transparency concerns.
Defining 'prescribed circumstances' may be legally and operationally challenging, creating uncertainty or uneven enforcement.
May impede evidence collection of public harms and create additional policing and prosecution burdens without guarantees of effective protection.

The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada Houseless individuals and those that struggle with mental health are especially vulnerable to exploitation given their circumstances; The law currently allows these vulnerable people to be filmed and posted on social media without their knowledge and consent often while experiencing crisis; This practice puts at risk the safety of this community by allowing those that may mean them harm, a tool to find them. This is especially relevant considering that this population that has a high number of domestic violence survivors and is at higher risk for sexual exploitation; This act can increase stigmatization and of these groups by showing only snapshots of people suffering or in crisis, with no additional context or education; and This community is unlikely to have the resources to seek out civil remedies and criminal remedies against harassment and thus should be afforded extra protection. We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to create a new provision in the Criminal Code that would make it an offence to knowingly record in public, a person the recorder knows is experiencing “prescribed circumstance of significant vulnerability” for the purposes of publishing or distributing that recording to the public.“Prescribed circumstance of significant vulnerability” include: (a) experiencing homelessness; (b) experiencing a mental-health crisis or other acute psychological crisis; (c) experiencing significant impairment resulting from alcohol, drugs, or another substance; and (d) experiencing another prescribed circumstance that substantially increases the person's vulnerability to exploitation or serious harm from public exposure.

Government response

No government response is available yet.