What Canada Criminal Code Section 163 - Obscene Material Distribution and Possession Offences (R.S.C. 1985 c. C-46) requires
Section 163 of the Canadian Criminal Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46) is the principal federal criminal prohibition on the production, publication, distribution, circulation, sale, public exhibition and possession-for-distribution of obscene material in Canada. Subsection 163(1) criminalises any person who makes, prints, publishes, distributes, circulates or has in their possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation any obscene written matter, picture, model, phonograph record or any other obscene thing. Subsection 163(2) prohibits knowingly selling, exposing to public view or possessing for that purpose any obscene material, and publicly exhibiting disgusting objects or indecent shows. Subsection 163(3) preserves a defence of public good where the public good was served by the alleged acts and the acts did not extend beyond what served that public good (artistic, educational, scientific or medical purposes). Subsection 163(8) defines obscene as any publication a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex combined with crime, horror, cruelty or violence. Under Section 169, the Section 163 offence is a hybrid offence punishable by imprisonment up to two years on indictment or on summary conviction (with reference to the Section 787 general summary-conviction penalty for the upper limit). The Section 163(8) undue-exploitation test is interpreted through the Butler test (R. v. Butler, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 452) on the community standards of tolerance: content is obscene where the community would not tolerate exposure of others to it because of the harm it poses, particularly to women and children. Section 163 operates in parallel with Section 163.1 (child pornography, six months to fourteen years), Section 162.1 (publication of intimate images without consent, the Bill C-13 amendment of 2014, up to five years), and Section 162 (voyeurism, up to five years). For digital platforms accessible from Canada, Section 163 reaches extraterritorially under Sections 6 and 477 of the Criminal Code where the act has a real and substantial link to Canada (R. v. Libman, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 178). Enforcement is by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, and provincial Crown prosecutors; the Department of Justice maintains policy oversight. The Online Harms Act (Bill C-63 introduced 26 February 2024, in force in stages from 2025-2026) overlays Section 163 with platform safety duties on operators of social media and content platforms, including a duty to make non-consensual intimate content and content that sexually victimises children inaccessible within twenty-four hours of a credible complaint.
Pillar: Adult Industry & Sexual Content Compliance · Authority: Department of Justice Canada; Criminal Code R.S.C. 1985 c. C-46 Section 163, in force as part of the federal Criminal Code; most recently amended by the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act S.C. 2014 c. 31 and consequential amendments · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-163.html
SHA-256 integrity: 76335a6b58d6cb0a116c92e7459db9e055d66eca32c9f5abc246bcf064a5ee15
Primary Citations — 8 traced to source
- Criminal Code of Canada (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46) Section 163 - Corrupting Morals, with subsections 163(1) making, printing, publishing, distributing, circulating, possession for distribution of obscene material; 163(2) selling, exposing to public view, possession for that purpose, public exhibition of disgusting objects or indecent shows; 163(3) defence of public good; 163(8) definition of obscene as undue exploitation of sex or sex with crime, horror, cruelty and violence
- Criminal Code of Canada Section 169 - punishment for Section 163: hybrid offence, on indictment up to two years imprisonment; on summary conviction subject to Section 787 general summary-conviction limits
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