A topic that has not been looked at by a specialized committee since 1985 has been reintroduced in the House of Commons, as Motion M-47, by former Barrhead resident and current Member of Parliament Arnold Viersen.
On March 8, Viersen issued a press release on the subject of the public health effects of violent sexual material, an issue he said has been on his mind for a while.
“It is a tough topic and it isn’t polite conversation, but it is something that needs to be discussed,” Viersen said by telephone on March 15, adding while it was not something he was elected on, as a father, he feels the issue important enough to debate using his private members spot to push the topic in the House of Commons.
“I had received a number of letters from people in the riding asking me to have a look at this issue and how society values women. I have a daughter myself and I can remember the story of Rehtaeh Parsons – a 17-year-old girl who was assaulted at a party and attempted to commit suicide, and the issues surrounding that incident have always stuck with me.”
In 2013, Parsons was taken off of life-support after her failed attempt.
Viersen said once he began doing his own research on the availability of violent and explicit content, in preparation for making the motion, he found there were a number of advocacy groups in Canada that work on the subject of this type of material.
“It came to me, over the course of my researching, that maybe this is a health crisis here in Canada,” he added.
Viersen said a look needs to be taken at the mental health of girls in these types of situations, and as well, at the availability of sexually violent content on the internet.
“Maybe it is changing the way that women and girls are being viewed in our society,” he said, wondering what would possess a group of boys at a party to think that gang-rape is acceptable behaviour.
“There is a health committee looking into this, although the topic hasn’t been examined since 1985,” he said, adding with issues like this, often there is an interaction with the health care system and individuals with mental health illnesses – depression and addictions to violent and explicit material mostly, and due to the seriousness of the issue, he believes Canada as a whole needs to look at the subject.
According to Viersen’s estimates, 30 per cent of all bandwidth on the Internet is used to look up sexual content.
“Of the most viewed videos, 80 per cent are violent and degrading,” he added.
The important question, Viersen said, is why the statistics are like that and the reason a health committee is looking into the matter.
“We need medical professionals, parents and school groups out front on this issue,” he said, adding there have been studies done in the past that show a correlation between violent material and changes in societal perceptions of what is acceptable or not.
“What is truly shocking is the average age of first exposure to this kind of stuff is 12-year-olds,” Viersen said, adding it could be as simple as a kid on a bus snatching a WiFi signal on his cellphone.
“It is a completely different world from the one I grew up in,” he added.
Viersen said once the health committee has looked at the motion, recommendations will be made and it will be up to him to decide whether, as an MP, this is the issue he would like to proceed on in July.
“I could bring this forward in the House of Commons and have them interact with it, debate on it and vote, which would then make it binding to the committee, but I would have to use my private members spot for it, if that were the case and while I can table as many issues as I like, I can only move forward on one in July.”
A topic that has not been looked at by a specialized committee since 1985 has been reintroduced in the House of Commons, as Motion M-47, by former Barrhead resident and current Member of Parliament Arnold Viersen.
On March 8, Viersen issued a press release on the subject of the public health effects of violent sexual material, an issue he said has been on his mind for a while.
“It is a tough topic and it isn’t polite conversation, but it is something that needs to be discussed,” Viersen said by telephone on March 15, adding while it was not something he was elected on, as a father, he feels the issue important enough to debate using his private members spot to push the topic in the House of Commons.
“I had received a number of letters from people in the riding asking me to have a look at this issue and how society values women. I have a daughter myself and I can remember the story of Rehtaeh Parsons – a 17-year-old girl who was assaulted at a party and attempted to commit suicide, and the issues surrounding that incident have always stuck with me.”
In 2013, Parsons was taken off of life-support after her failed attempt.
Viersen said once he began doing his own research on the availability of violent and explicit content, in preparation for making the motion, he found there were a number of advocacy groups in Canada that work on the subject of this type of material.
“It came to me, over the course of my researching, that maybe this is a health crisis here in Canada,” he added.
Viersen said a look needs to be taken at the mental health of girls in these types of situations, and as well, at the availability of sexually violent content on the internet.
“Maybe it is changing the way that women and girls are being viewed in our society,” he said, wondering what would possess a group of boys at a party to think that gang-rape is acceptable behaviour.
“There is a health committee looking into this, although the topic hasn’t been examined since 1985,” he said, adding with issues like this, often there is an interaction with the health care system and individuals with mental health illnesses – depression and addictions to violent and explicit material mostly, and due to the seriousness of the issue, he believes Canada as a whole needs to look at the subject.
According to Viersen’s estimates, 30 per cent of all bandwidth on the Internet is used to look up sexual content.
“Of the most viewed videos, 80 per cent are violent and degrading,” he added.
The important question, Viersen said, is why the statistics are like that and the reason a health committee is looking into the matter.
“We need medical professionals, parents and school groups out front on this issue,” he said, adding there have been studies done in the past that show a correlation between violent material and changes in societal perceptions of what is acceptable or not.
“What is truly shocking is the average age of first exposure to this kind of stuff is 12-year-olds,” Viersen said, adding it could be as simple as a kid on a bus snatching a WiFi signal on his cellphone.
“It is a completely different world from the one I grew up in,” he added.
Viersen said once the health committee has looked at the motion, recommendations will be made and it will be up to him to decide whether, as an MP, this is the issue he would like to proceed on in July.
“I could bring this forward in the House of Commons and have them interact with it, debate on it and vote, which would then make it binding to the committee, but I would have to use my private members spot for it, if that were the case and while I can table as many issues as I like, I can only move forward on one in July.”
