The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has several concerns with the current Bill S-210, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material. A joint letter was issued on January 9, 2024 and our concerns remain the same:
- Unsafe age verification measures will have profound consequences on the privacy rights and fundamental freedoms of people in Canada
- Bill S-210’s overly broad scope would completely block access to most internet services and websites in Canada
Both privacy and freedom of expression are core, fundamental rights that must be protected and upheld for our society to remain free and democratic. As such, the BCCLA urges Parliament to carefully tailor any age-verification legislation to ensure that these foundational rights are infringed as little as possible to achieve the legislation’s goals, as the Charter requires. We organize these submissions according to these primary areas, first addressing the issues of scope that bear equally on privacy and s 2(b) interests, and then considering expression- and privacy-specific issues in turn.
