On September 29, 2026, LEAF provided a submission to the Department of Canadian Heritage on Bill C-34, An Act to enact the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act and to make consequential amendments to other Act.
Overview of Submission
To ensure that Bill C-34 can address the needs of survivors of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, respect the fundamental rights of people using online services in Canada, and ensure users can access information online, we make the following suggestions in our submission:
- Naming human rights and equality as a central guiding purpose of the Bill;
- Ensuring the Commission has adequate resources and relevant staff expertise;
- Having the Commission serve as the first place of contact for survivors experiencing
harm, not the last resort; - Amending the definition of intimate content communicated without consent to remove
references to deepfaked content needing to be “likely to be mistaken for a visual
recording”; - Pausing age-verification and age-estimation measures;
- Having an education-forward approach to pornographic material; and
- Ensuring consultations on regulations remain open and accessible.
Read and download the submission here.