Manitoba government eyes more recourse for people who have intimate images shared
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WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government is planning to expand a law that protects people whose nude or explicitly sexual images are shared without their consent.
The province already has a law that allows victims to sue perpetrators and receive support in getting images taken down from the internet. A bill introduced in the legislature Thursday would broaden the law to include nearly nude images. It would also make it illegal to threaten to share intimate images, even if no sharing occurs.
“We’ve seen that the threats themselves are a coercive control tactic and they can really influence and create a lot of fear in victims,” said Kalyn Danco, associate general counsel with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
The centre runs a national tipline where people can report online child sexual abuse and exploitation, and it receives hundreds of reports each year of images being shared without consent, Danco said.
The NDP government also plans to hold websites accountable if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove images uploaded without consent, but admitted it will be a challenge.
“It’s an important question that I think a lot of jurisdictions are wrestling in (terms of) how we can impact and influence those companies,” Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said.
The federal government provides criminal consequences for sharing intimate images without consent under the Criminal Code. Manitoba and other provinces have laws that offer civil remedies.
Manitoba’s law allows victims to go to court and sue alleged perpetrators. The law includes a reverse onus — the intimate image is presumed to have been shared without consent unless the person who shared it shows they had reasonable grounds to believe that consent was given.
The law also provides support for victims, who can be presented with legal options by government staff or the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. The advice can include guidance toward getting the images removed from the internet and having physical copies destroyed.
The province expanded the law last year to include images that are generated or altered by computer, often called “deepfakes.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.