Legislation affording speedy and effective relief to persons
whose intimate images have been disclosed without their consent is
in development in Canada.
It is now common for many people to privately exchange intimate
images through electronic means. Other people take advantage of
technology to surreptitiously record intimate images without the
subject's consent (such as “up-skirting”). The
disclosure of a person's intimate images without their
consent can have devastating effects, “ranging from suicides
by teenage victims to career-ending consequences when established
persons are victimized.”1
The criminal offence of knowingly publishing or distributing an
intimate image of a person knowing that the person depicted did not
consent to its distribution (or being reckless whether the person
consented) was created in 2015.2 The Criminal
Code defines an “intimate image” to mean a visual
recording of a person (by any means) in which the person is nude,
or exposing
