M-47, a private member’s motion put forth by Conservative MP Arnold Viersen (Peace River-Westlock), which if passed would require the House of Commons standing committee on health to study the public health effects of “violent and degrading sexually explicit material,” was debated on Nov. 14, and will be voted on in December. The committee would report back to Parliament by mid-2017.
Viersen said he couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the debate when M-47 received unanimous support from all MPs. Kamal Khera, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health, announced the government’s full support for the motion.
A rookie MP, Viersen told the House of Commons that “the impact of violent and sexually explicit material was not an issue I expected to bring forward when arriving here a year ago, nor was it on my radar.”
He said he has been inundated with support from women’s and children’s agencies for his efforts to shine a light on what one women’s shelter called a “global public health crisis.”
Viersen told LifeSiteNews he could have asked that the Justice Committee examine the issue, but that committee can only recommend changes to the law or perhaps censorship of the Internet. “I didn’t want to go down that road,” he said. Concentrating on the health implications was a good way to ensure all-party support and also to stress public education rather than legal restrictions. “Gradually the scientific evidence became known about smoking’s impact on the heart and the lungs. Now that kind of information about the health impact of pornography on the user is also being discovered,” he said.
