HALIFAX – A criminology professor at the University of Ottawa says the hasty reaction of governments to specific cases such as the death of Rehtaeh Parsons can create bad law.
Valerie Steeves says she would have to see specifics of what is being suggested by Nova Scotia in the Parsons case, but what is alleged to have happened might be covered by existing laws.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to meet with the Parsons family tomorrow in Ottawa to talk about changing the Criminal Code.
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter is also scheduled to meet Harper tomorrow to discuss his government’s proposal to make the circulation of intimate images without consent a criminal act.
Parsons attempted suicide on April 4th and was taken off life-support three days later.
Her family alleges she was sexually assaulted at a Halifax-area house by four boys in November 2011 and a photograph of the incident was distributed.
Because Parsons was a minor at the time, Steeves says existing child pornography laws prohibit the distribution of sexual images.
She says if there was a sexual assault, the image’s distribution would be illegal under Criminal Code sections dealing with obscenity.
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