Internet Offences
These are search cases before they are anything else. What the officer swore to get the warrant, and whether the device could lawfully be looked at, usually decides them before a single file is opened.
What this charge involves
An internet prosecution almost always begins somewhere other than your house: a tip from a foreign agency, a report from a service provider, an IP address attributed to an account, or a device examined at a border. Each of those steps had to be lawful, and each of them is written down somewhere.
The offences themselves sit mainly in section 163.1 of the Criminal Code, which Parliament amended in 2024 to replace the term ‘child pornography’ with ‘child sexual abuse and exploitation material’. Possession and accessing each carry up to 10 years on indictment; making, distributing and importing carry up to 14. Luring a child by telecommunication is section 172.1.
This is difficult work and we do not pretend otherwise. It is also work where the technical record decides a great deal, and where very few people read that record properly.
Charges within this area
- Possession
- Accessing
- Making and distribution
- Luring
- Voyeurism
- Intimate images without consent
How these cases get fought
The parts of the file that decide the outcome.
Possession means knowledge and control, and neither is obvious.
A file on a device is not the same as a file a person knew about. Automatic caching, thumbnails generated by the operating system, shared or family machines, remote synchronisation and material arriving inside an archive that was opened for something else all produce files nobody chose.
One of the matters in our record turned on exactly this. Our client’s phone was searched by customs officers at Pearson and he was charged with possession, making and importing. We established that he was unaware the material was on the device. He was acquitted of all charges and left court a free man.
The warrant, and what was sworn to get it.
Almost every one of these prosecutions rests on a search. That means an Information to Obtain, sworn by an officer, setting out grounds. Those grounds get tested: whether the attribution of an IP address to a person was sound, whether the foreign tip was reliable, whether the affidavit was full and frank, and whether the scope of what was authorised matches what was actually taken.
Where the search fails, the material usually goes with it. That is not a technicality. It is the mechanism by which section 8 of the Charter means anything at all.
Luring, and a mandatory minimum that no longer stands.
Section 172.1 makes it an offence to communicate by telecommunication with a person who is, or who the accused believes is, under a specified age, for the purpose of facilitating a listed offence. The Code sets a minimum of one year on indictment and six months on summary conviction.
Those minimums are no longer good law. In R v Bertrand Marchand, 2023 SCC 26, the Supreme Court held that the mandatory minimums in section 172.1(2)(a) and (b) are inconsistent with section 12 of the Charter and struck them down. The Court was careful to say that this does not make luring a less serious offence, and that a fit sentence will sometimes exceed what the minimum required. But the floor is gone, and any advice that still assumes it is out of date.
Say nothing, and do not tidy anything.
Two things, in the hour after police attend. Do not explain the device, and do not touch it.
An explanation about how a file arrived is the most damaging statement available in this area, because it concedes knowledge in the course of denying intent. And deleting, reinstalling or factory-resetting anything creates a fresh charge of obstruction and destroys the very metadata that most often shows the material was never chosen.
Related case results
Matters of this kind and how they were resolved. Identifying details have been changed or withheld, and past results don’t predict the outcome of any other case.
- Acquitted on all charges
Pornography · Possession, Making, Importing
If police are questioning you
What to say
“I want to speak to my lawyer. I have nothing to say to you.”
Say it, then stop. Nobody can make you explain yourself, and an explanation can’t help you: the rules of evidence will not let your own statement be used in your favour at trial. It can only be used against you.
Questions about internet offences charges
The police took my phone and computer. When do I get them back?
Not quickly. Devices are imaged and the image is examined, which takes months. A detention order has to be extended periodically, and those extensions can be opposed, which is worth doing where a device is needed for work.
Nobody has charged me. Should I wait and see?
No. The period between a search and a charge is the most useful time to have counsel, and it is when people most often speak to investigators without advice.
Is a conviction on the sex offender registry?
Offences under section 163.1 and section 172.1 are designated offences for the purposes of the registry. That, and the ancillary orders that come with these convictions, is usually a larger practical consequence than the sentence itself.
Can these charges be resolved without a trial?
Sometimes, and the answer depends almost entirely on the search. Where the warrant is sound the conversation is different from where it is not, which is why nothing sensible can be said before the disclosure has been read.
This page is general information about Canadian criminal law, not legal advice about your situation. The offences described are defined in the Criminal Code of Canada, and the rights referred to are in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If you cannot afford counsel, Legal Aid Ontario may be able to help.
Written and reviewed by Rita Levin, criminal defence lawyer, called to the Ontario bar on 29 May 1998. Law Society of Ontario licence no. 41157R. Last reviewed .
Other charges we defend
Drug Offences
Possession, trafficking, importation and production, including fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Sexual Offences
Sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation.
Homicide
Murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, criminal negligence causing death.
Firearms, Guns & Gangs
Firearms offences, imitation firearms, improper storage, and criminal organization prosecutions.
Fraud & Financial Crime
Fraud over and under $5,000, employee and corporate fraud, forensic accounting cases.
Assault & Domestic
Assault, assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, and domestic matters.
Impaired Driving
Impaired operation, over 80, refusing the demand, and impaired causing bodily harm or death.
Theft, Break & Enter, Robbery
Theft over and under $5,000, break and enter, robbery, and possession of stolen property.
Talk it through with a lawyer
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. We will give you an honest read on where you stand, whether you retain us or not.
We are a private practice and our fees reflect the work involved. A serious matter is prepared over months, and we keep our numbers low so each file gets the hours it needs. We will tell you what your case is likely to cost on the first call, before you commit to anything. And if the honest answer is that duty counsel, Legal Aid or another firm would serve you better, we will tell you that instead.