Trudeau jabs Poilievre over bill requiring digital ID for porn browsing
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau took an unprompted jab at his main political rival on Thursday over a Senate porn bill that the prime minister said could usher in a digital ID for adults who want to browse certain websites.
Trudeau accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of “spreading lies” about the Liberal government’s upcoming online harms legislation — even while supporting a bill that would create online restrictions.
“Instead of stepping up to stand for protecting our kids through responsible, serious legislation, he’s proposing that adults should instead give their ID and personal information to sketchy websites, or create a digital ID for adults to be able to browse the web the way they want to,” Trudeau said after a news conference in Nova Scotia.
“That’s something we stand against and disagree with.”
On Wednesday, Poilievre confirmed that his party supports a bill that would require porn sites to verify users’ ages, and that a future Conservative government would legislate the same.
Bill S-210 passed in the Senate in the spring and New Democrats, Bloc Québécois and Conservative MPs voted to send it to a House of Commons committee for study, while Liberals voted against it.
The bill introduced by Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne, a member of the Independent Senators Group, does not specify how age would be verified.
Options for enforcement include the creation of a digital government ID or the requirement that users scan their face using a webcam so that their approximate age can be determined — both methods the Tories say they disapprove of.
Miville-Dechêne said in a statement Thursday that “age verification to access online porn is not a partisan issue” and pointed to other jurisdictions that have drafted such laws, including France, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
In France, a digital certificate is being explored, while the European Union is set to roll out a personal digital wallet for each of its citizens to use online.
The U.K. has said methods it’s looking into include verifying ages through photo ID matching, facial age estimation and credit card checks.
Miville-Dechêne said “accredited third parties” would conduct age verification rather than government or porn sites, and defended the fact her bill doesn’t specify how the law would be applied.
“Approving specific age-verification methods will be done in regulations, after extensive consultations,” she said.
“This is the normal way of proceeding and it’s what other jurisdictions have done.”