Ottawa has announced $22 million in funding to fight online child abuse.
Noting that police-reported incidents of child pornography in Canada increased by 288 per cent between 2010 and 2017, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale made the announcement Tuesday.
It follows a London meeting last week that focused on the exploitation of children
between Goodale and his counterparts from the United States, Britain,
Australia and New Zealand, collectively known as the Five Eyes
intelligence group.
Major internet companies, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft,
were also at the meeting and agreed to a set of rules the members of the
group proposed to remove child pornography from the internet quicker.
On Tuesday, Goodale warned internet companies they had to be better,
faster and more open when in comes to fighting child abuse on line.
In
this Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 photo, detectives use the Cellebrite system
to extract information from cellphones at the State Police facility in
Hamilton Township, N.J. “Operation Safety Net,” the results of which
were announced in December, netted 79 people suspected of exploiting
children. (Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press/Canadian Press)
“If human harm is done, if a child is terrorized for the rest of
their life because of what happened to them on the internet, if there
are other damages and costs, then maybe the platform that made that
possible should bear the financial consequences,” Goodale said.
The government plan includes $2.1 million to intensify engagement
with digital industry to develop new tools online and support effective
operating principles, $4.9 million for research, public engagement,
awareness and collaboration with non-governmental organizations and
$15.25 million to internet child exploitation units in provincial and
municipal police forces across the country.
Goodale said the strategy recognizes that technology is “increasingly
facilitating the easy borderless access to vast volumes of abhorrent
images.”
That, he said, makes investigations increasingly complex,
“This is a race where the course is always getting longer and more complicated and advancing into brand new areas that hadn’t been anticipated five years ago or a year ago or even a week ago,” Goodale said.
The town of Oka is asking the federal and provincial governments to
slap a moratorium on a proposed land grant to the local Mohawk community
in Kanesatake and to establish an RCMP detachment on the First Nations
territory to deal with illegal cannabis sales outlets.
The requests were contained in two resolutions adopted Tuesday night by the Oka town council.
The
administration of Oka Mayor Pascal Quevillon held its first public
meeting since the start of the controversy that pitted the town council
against the Kanesatake band council over a decision by a local promoter
to give local lands to the Mohawk community.
The three resolutions
are addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, Quebec
Premier François Legault’s government and the Kanesatake band council
led by Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon.
As each resolution was read
into the record, Quevillon stressed that the town of Oka was only
looking to live in peaceful cohabitation with the Mohawk community.
The
town also called upon Ottawa to establish a consultation process that
would take into account the concerns of residents in Oka
and Kanesatake.
Quevillon’s administration also wants access to
the plans detailing what lands are at the centre of negotiations between
the federal government and the Mohawk community for purchase,
suggesting the talks are simply a disguised form of expropriation.
“They’re giving money to (the Mohawks) to buy our land and annex it to their territory,” Quevillon said.
Despite
its demands, the Oka council adopted an official statement addressed to
the Kanesatake band council saying the town’s population wanted
dialogue and peaceful cohabitation, with Quevillon citing the 300 years
of close links between the two communities.
During the council
meeting’s question period, some residents suggested that the council
deal with other groups that say they are speaking for Kanesatake,
including Mohawk traditionalists. Mayor Quevillon replied that the town
would only deal with the band council and did so out of respect for
Grand Chief Simon.
The mayor also argued that the RCMP, a federal
police force, was best suited to be deployed in Kanesatake, where it
would ensure the law would be respected, particularly on the issue of
illegal cannabis shops.
Quevillon contended such a deployment was
the only way for both communities to work together toward their mutual
economic development.
Asked by a resident if he would apologize, Quevillon left the answer to those citizens who attended the meeting, the vast majority of whom replied, “no.”