Madam Speaker, I will start by saying that I was a little surprised when I read this motion. New Democrats will support Motion No. 47, but I do have some comments to share with the sponsor.

I really had to wonder why the member chose to present this kind of motion to the House. I would have expected such a motion to go directly to the Standing Committee on Health. Nevertheless, the member for Peace River—Westlock moved Motion No. 47 in the House, so now we must debate it.

I get how important this issue is, but if it truly matters to him, I think it would have been more efficient to put the motion before the committee so that it could have started its study sooner. In fact, this motion could have been put to a number of committees so they could study it in depth and figure out how to protect our children from this public health threat.

It has been more than 30 years since Parliament last debated pornography. Back then, there was no Internet, so that is why we need to talk about it again. I agree that we need some current data on the effects of violent pornography.

However, I want to see concerted action, not only at the Standing Committee on Health, but within a number of committees, so as to ensure that we take a comprehensive approach and act meaningfully. From my research I learned that many difficulties associated with pornography stem from the fact that no one seems to agree on how to define the term. According to the House of Commons website, criminal law does not refer to pornography but rather obscenity, except in an amendment made in 1993 on child pornography.

In 1988, the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women proposed the following definition of pornography:

Pornography is the representation or description of violent or degrading behaviour or behaviour that causes or could cause death, when that behaviour is inflicted by one individual on another, or by that individual on themselves, represented or described for the express purpose of sexually stimulating or gratifying the spectator, reader, or listener; especially when such behaviour can be taken to be advocated or endorsed.

I am now quoting from the House of Commons website:

Notwithstanding the uncertainties of definition, many believe that material that depicts violence toward—or demeans—women is demonstrably harmful and should be controlled. There is, however, considerable divergence on the appropriate strategy.

The committee needs to study this. The quotation continues:

Harm is said to flow from pornography in two ways. First, it is theorized that there is a direct causal link between violent pornography and violence against women, so that such material can act as a “trigger” to aggression. Second, it is said that pornography contributes in a general way to myths about sexuality and about women that ultimately make violence and degradation more acceptable to society as a whole. According to this view, distinctions among types of pornography are invidious. Such material constitutes a continuum: consumers are desensitized or numbed by “soft” pornography, the wide distribution of which makes the allegedly more directly harmful “hard” pornography easier to accept and, indeed, encourages its production.

The NDP recognizes that the increasing ease of access to violent and sexual material online can be a problem for our society. The consequences of accessing such material to male sexuality, such as erectile dysfunction, pushes men to watch ever more violent pornographic videos. Likewise, watching violent pornographic material might lower women's self-esteem .

It has also been proven that individuals who watch such material could be more inclined to normalize sexual violence.

The new Democrats are very concerned about the public's increased access to violent and extreme pornographic content, which shows explicit scenes of degradation and sexual violence for the purpose of sexual arousal. Given the number of consumers of violent pornography, there is a growing risk of normalization that can result from constant exposure or dependence on violent pornography. There is the danger of progressive normalization of pornography, which would lead people to believe that moral coercion and physical violence is acceptable.

We must take action to ensure that violent and sexually explicit content is not readily accessible by children. We must do something about this. We believe that action must be taken and access to this type of content must be controlled on several levels and in a concerted manner. We want to protect our children from sexually explicit content that could impact their health.

My research indicates that all studies of violent pornography contradict one another to a great extent. For example, according to the organization Avenir de la culture, a study conducted by one of the leading researchers in this field, Professor Neil M. Malamuth of the University of California in Los Angeles, entitled “Predicting Sexual Aggression: The Role of Pornography in the Context of General and Specific Risk Factors”, concludes that high pornography consumption added significantly to the prediction of sexual aggression.

There is a particularly high correlation between the frequent use of pornography and sexually aggressive behaviour among those who are already strongly predisposed to sexual aggression. In other words, among those at the highest predisposing risk level for sexual aggression, those who are very frequent pornography users have sexual aggression levels approximately four times higher than their counterparts who do not very frequently consume pornography.

However, the studies presented in Contrepoints show that European researchers did not come to the same conclusions. They did not find that users of what they classified as violent pornography were more aggressive than non-users.

I therefore believe that it is important that the committee conduct further research in this area. Whom are we to believe? I agree with the member that we need to do everything we can to protect our children against the destructive effects of violent Internet pornography.

That is why we need to ensure that the committee conducts a full study of this issue and proposes solutions and recommendations so that we, as parliamentarians, can do what is necessary and bring in legislation for everyone's well-being.

Brigitte Sansoucy

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