Written Brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights Study of Bill C-16,
An Act to amend the Criminal Code and other Acts
March 2026
Daughter Project Canada welcomes the government’s intent in Bill C-16 to protect children and victims of gender-based violence. The bill represents meaningful progress: it recognizes emerging forms of harm, including technology-facilitated abuse and coercive control, and it reflects a growing legislative understanding that exploitation in the digital age demands a criminal law response.
However, Daughter Project Canada respectfully submits that criminal law reform alone cannot end exploitation or violence. Without strong prevention measures, sustained survivor supports, and robust accountability mechanisms, the criminal justice system will remain reactive rather than protective.
This concern reflects Daughter Project Canada’s core mandate: awareness, prevention, and advocacy. It also echoes testimony heard by this Committee. Attorney General Sean Fraser, in the first meeting of this study, expressed a desire to empower frontline workers such as RCMP and police, and noted that investing in programs targeting at-risk youth should be considered. Daughter Project Canada strongly agrees, and further submits that prevention can and must happen upstream of policing measures.
On the question of risk: Daughter Project Canada cautions against framing vulnerability too narrowly. Any Canadian child or youth who accesses the internet is potentially at risk regardless of socio-economic status, geographic location, family structure, immigration status, ethnicity, or disability status. Online exploitation does not conform to traditional “at-risk” categories. Daughter Project Canada developed its Sextortion Safety Guide in direct response to demand from a broad cross-section of Canadian caregivers; our donors and supporters who represent communities from coast to coast to coast. The demand for that resource is itself evidence that online exploitation does not discriminate.
