By Dr. Charles McVety
Monday, September 24, 2007
Under section 161 of the Criminal Code of Canada, it is a crime to distribute child pornography. "Any person who imports, distributes, sells or possesses, for the purpose of distribution or sale, any child pornography is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years". This is the law of the land. However, internet service providers such as Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus, Shaw and others distribute tens of thousands of pages of child pornography every day. The Canadian Government has decided that these corporations are above the law, and have given them complete immunity from prosecution. The result is the abuse of hundreds of thousands of children and this must stop.
Recently I was in Russia, and the headlines said "Massive International Child Pornography Ring Busted". I was ashamed to read that it stemmed from my home city of Toronto. Thirty-five children were rescued, and millions of web pages were shut down, some depicting adults having sex with children as young as 1-year old. How could this happen in my Toronto? The reason is that our former Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, made an announcement many years ago that Internet distribution would not be prosecuted. Yes, the government arrests the individuals that possess the illegal material, but not those who distribute it by the Internet. If someone owns a bookstore, magazine shop, television station or any other media outlet, they will be prosecuted for distributing child pornography. But, if you are a massive corporation like Rogers Cable, they turn a blind eye to this violation of children and the law.
Together, we must call upon the Canadian Government to stop this insanity, and prosecute the perpetrators. The laws currently exist, so we must call the Minister of Justice, and our local Members of Parliament, and demand that they exercise the law.
The technology exists to block websites that display illegal material. However, these big corporations are reluctant to do so, as child pornography is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. A reporting mechanism is in place at www.cybertip.ca so once notified the ISP's can block the child porn websites. Countries like South Korea have been doing this for years.
The Council of Europe report stated in 2004 that "the annual market in child pornography on the Internet is almost 20billion dollars, ...pedophile images make up almost a quarter of the images downloaded from the Internet." It is reported that the Interpol now has a database of a staggering 200,000 images of children having sex with adults. A US agency has recorded a 1500% increase in reports of child pornography since 2001. The US Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported one website with 70,000 customers, all paying nearly $30 a month for graphic images of children being abused. We must act to stop this trade of child abuse today. Hundreds of thousands of children's lives depend on us.
I grew up in the cold city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, where one day a mother drove away from a store in a snowstorm. Her car got stuck, so she told her 5-year-old daughter to stay in the car as she went back to the store for help. The mother returned a few minutes later with a group of people. The little girl was gone. They could see her tracks in the deep snow, but the wind covered the trail. It was 30 degree below zero, so they had to find the girl quickly. They all ran in different directions searching for several minutes to no avail. The mother then said, why don't we hold hands and walk from the car. After taking several steps, they stumbled upon the frozen body of the 5-year-old girl. The mother cried out "why didn't we join hands earlier? My girl could have been saved."
Hundreds of thousands of little girls and boys are out there in the cold, vicious world of child pornography. If we join hands together, we can stop the distribution of child pornography on the Internet in Canada and save thousands of boys and girls.
I ask you to join hands with us and do the following:
Call the the Hon. Robert Nicholson, MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA at (613) 992-4621. Write to him at 105 East Block, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0A6 and fax him at (613) 990-7255.
Donate so we can take out newspaper, television and radio ads. Go to www.blockchildporn.ca
Petition: Have your family, friends and neighbours sign the petition at www.blockchildporn.ca
Call your Internet Service Provider and demand that they block all child pornography.
Pray. Prayer is the key to all victory, however, "faith without works is dead".
If not you, who? If not now, when?Dr. Charles McVety is Senior Director, Defend Marriage and President of Canada Christian College.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement