The Offense of Voyeurism in the Criminal Code of Canada – a Critique

R v. Jarvis was a case before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court upheld the relevant provision of the Criminal Code, which makes it an offense (voyeurism) to surreptitiously record another person for sexual gratification. The accused was a schoolteacher who surreptitiously recorded his female students and a female teacher while carrying out routine activities at school. The camera focused on the breasts and buttocks of the fully clothed subjects. In the United States, this set of facts would not constitute a crime. Photographing other people from angles that are in plain view does not constitute a crime – particularly if the subject is fully clothed. It is also strange that, in this case, photographing fully clothed subjects was deemed to be considered for sexual gratification purposes. Can a defendant merely admire the beauty of a female subject without necessarily gaining sexual gratification from it? The female form has been admired in art since time immemorial. Is this kind of admiration a kind of sexual gratification? Equating the two seems to be fallacious. People have argued that the United State is more puritanical while Canada is more sexually progressive, but this provision of the Criminal Code shows otherwise. Canada is simply not as insistent on personal expressive freedoms. And radical feminism, including its agenda to smear men as having committed original sin for merely being men, showed its ability to influence the law in this case. The defendant was sentenced to six-month imprisonment, which is totally disproportionate to his inappropriate action this case – record by camera what he was able to see in person while going about routine activity. Meanwhile, nobody suggests any criminal charges when cameras are installed in public places, even though they record the same activity from essentially the same viewing angle. Determining the “purpose” of the recording is entirely subject to the whims of the prosecutor or judge.

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