Is Voyeurism A Crime?

Welcome back to the Kruse Law YouTube Channel. I’m so glad you could join me today. I have a criminal law question for you today. Is voyeurism a crime in Canada? I think it could be rephrased as being a peeping Tom, a crime in Canada? That’s a phrase that a lot of people use. It absolutely is. Under Section 162 of the Criminal Code, if a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, for example, they’re in their bedroom, they’re in their bathroom, they’re in their home, and someone has set up a camera to surreptitious to record them for a sexual purpose. That absolutely is voyeurism, even if the person is not seen in the nude in their bedroom on the recording, that’s still voyeurism. Also, there’s other incidents that we’ve heard terms like up skirting, where people will take an iPhone and surreptitiously record a person, male or females, genitals, in public or down blousing, etc. So this is a very serious offense, voyeurism. 

If it’s preceded by summarily, you could be facing up to two years in jail, just two years less a day. And if the crown proceeds by indictment, you could be facing a maximum of five years in jail. The whole key to this issue is whether it’s for a sexual purpose and whether the person had a reasonable expectation of privacy. 

There are situations where people are recording where there’s not a reasonable expectation of privacy and it wasn’t for a sexual purpose, but in most cases, obviously, if you leave a camera in someone’s bedroom, or you’re in public, that’s clearly for a sexual purpose and it becomes a very serious criminal offense because the person has an expectation of privacy, and this is a very embarrassing and psychological damaging type of offense. 

So there you have it. It’s very serious criminal offense. There are certain defenses in certain cases, which I won’t get into in this video. Perhaps I’ll do another video on that of how voyeurism can be defendable in certain instances. Now, a very serious aspect of voyeurism is under Section 160.2.1 of the Criminal Code, and that’s where you actually take the image you’ve captured and then publish it. Wow, that’s a real serious criminal offence too. It has the same maximum and penalties of five years and two years less than day if elected summarily. But people are facing lengthy jail terms for these types of offenses, and well, they should, because it’s certainly a serious type sexual crime that goes on in Canada. So there you have it. Voyeurism, being a peeping Tom in Canada is absolutely a criminal offense that’s going to get a person in serious trouble. 

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