Report of the committee
Thursday, September 19, 2024
The Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs has the honour to present its
TWENTY-SIXTH REPORT
Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-291, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (child sexual abuse and exploitation material), has, in obedience to the order of reference of Thursday, June 1, 2023, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment but with certain observations, which are appended to this report.
Respectfully submitted,
BRENT COTTER
Chair
Observations to the Twenty-Sixth Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (Bill C-291)
The committee has consistently reported in the past about how the Criminal Code has been amended in a piecemeal manner for many decades and has become cumbersome, sometimes repetitive, or inconsistent, and is in need of comprehensive reform (see, for instance, the committee’s 2017 report Delaying Justice is Denying Justice at pages 41 to 43). The committee repeats its past recommendation that an independent body should undertake a comprehensive review of the Criminal Code. The revived Law Commission of Canada could undertake such a review, which should include a study of all provisions in the Code that pertain to crimes against vulnerable persons.