Private Member's Bill would outlaw offensive material on the Internet

Bill C-427, the "Clean Internet Act", was introduced in Parliament last week. The Bill seeks to prevent the use of the Internet to distribute child pornography as well as material that advocates, promotes or incites racial hatred or violence against women. It would make it an offence for individuals to place such materials on the Internet, or to possess such materials found on the Internet. It would establish a CRTC-based licensing system for ISPs, and would make it an offence for ISPs to permit the use of their services for any of these purposes, or to allow people known to have committed such offences to use its services.