A West Kootenay petition calling on the federal government to protect minors from drug trafficking, with new requirements for social media companies, has been presented in the House of Commons.
The petition, which Columbia-Kootenay-Southern Rockies MP Rob Morrison introduced to the government on April 14, proposed several changes to Canada’s justice laws including:
• A new legal framework to protect minors from drug dealers;
• Targeted monitoring of social media for online trafficking, as well as required prevention policies adopted by social media companies;
• A new federal law specific to exploitation of children;
• Resources for law enforcement to investigate all reports of drug trafficking and criminal exploitation involving minors, as well as witness protection when required.
The petition originates in Kaslo but received 710 signatures from across Canada, including 196 from Ontario, and more than the 500 required to be heard in the House of Commons.
(The Nelson Star has agreed not to publish the petitioner’s name due to safety concerns for a child’s welfare.)
Canada has laws that provide a range of protections for minors from offences such as unsafe homes, abandonment, sex assault or trafficking. But while drug trafficking is a crime, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act does not include any language specific to trafficking involving minors or social media.
Morrison told the Nelson Star that the petition points to a weakness in Canada’s legal system.
“Our youth are so vulnerable, and have been abused by the system in that the predators have been allowed to exploit them. It’s interesting that our justice system hasn’t caught on that there’s something wrong here when our children are at such risk.”
There is increasing interest in Canada for holding tech companies accountable.
After it was revealed the shooter consulted with OpenAI’s ChatGPT prior to the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, Premier David Eby called for a policy requiring companies to advise police of suspicious activity.
In Ottawa, the federal government is currently debating Bill C-22 that provides legal framework for how law enforcement makes information requests to social media companies. The proposed legislation, however, doesn’t compel companies to share identifying details about users without a court order.
The federal government previously introduced the Online Harms Act in 2024 that would have held social media companies accountable for hosting harmful content, but the bill never became law. The government has said it is revisiting the legislation this year.
The petition also cites the United Kingdom’s expansive Crime and Policing Bill, which is also currently being debated, as a potential template to protect minors from online drug trafficking. It includes an amendment that requires social media companies to remove child sexual abuse material within two days of being reported.
Dr. Jaigris Hodson, a professor at Victoria’s Royal Roads University and the Canada Research Chair in digital misinformation, polarization and anti-social media, said tech companies should be required to have policies that prevent minors from being targeted on their platforms.
Those websites and apps, she said, are based on engagement metrics typically driven by negativity and controversy.
“The pressure needs to be on the social media companies to actually design algorithms that work more in the public interest, so that we’re not showing that kind of content and people are less likely to, for example with kids, fall into traps being predated or end up as drug users.”
Morrison conceded financial penalties against multinational companies such as Meta are unlikely to be impactful, and it may be difficult to block a social media app’s use in Canada.
But he also thinks that a middle ground can be found. There’s recent precedent for this — in March, the Chinese-owned app TikTok was allowed to continue operating in Canada only after it agreed to improve user security and add protections for minors.
“We need to have some rules and regulations surrounding our social media giants.”
Hodson believes those rules should be similar to broadcasting regulations governed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, instead of direct monitoring of social media by the government or law enforcement that may infringe on charter rights.
“If you’re going to do business here, then we want the algorithm to work in a way that benefits Canadians. That’s the kind of thing we should see, because these platforms make a ton of money off of us.”
Petitions aren’t debated when first heard in the House of Commons. The federal government has 45 days, or until May 29, to respond Morrison’s presentation.
Morrison, a Conservative Party member, hopes the Liberal government is receptive to the petition.
“Hopefully, that’s where this petition goes, is that it gets to the justice minister and public safety and they say this is a problem. And then let’s bring in experts, let’s bring in people who understand what social media can do and say here’s what can happen. And so we know exactly what road we are going down.”