Cybercrime Bill designed to protect people of SVG – Minister

The Cybercrime Bill, which is now at the select committee stage is an important bill designed to protect the people of this country.

Speaking at a press conference at the Cabinet room on Tuesday, Minister of Economic Planning, Sustainable Development, Industry, Information and Labour Camillo Gonsalves said the bill is important because it deals with child pornography, Internet fraud,{{more}} Internet scamming, hacking and “a number of the things that come increasingly dangerous as the society moves into a more digital space.”

He said the select committee on the Cybercrime Bill met last Monday, and represented among the members of the committee are the Director of Public Prosecutions, the telecommunications providers in this country, the Bar Association, lawyers who had indicated a specific interest, the Chamber of Commerce and also individuals who had demonstrated a prior interest and prior advocacy on Cybercrime legislation in the past.

According to Gonsalves, the bill was drafted and provided to the OECS and refined by the Vincentian government.

“It has gone through a process of revision; that is what came to the Parliament and now there is an additional process of revision from the Parliament to the final product.”

The minister noted that the bill has already been passed in Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, and St Kitts & Nevis. He also noted that it had been passed in different forms in Jamaica and is currently in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago.

“So, this is something that is being done regionally, and we hope to refine what the drafters have given us and hope to improve the law.”

Gonsalves urged persons to read the bill and focus on what it is targeting adding, “Don’t let people who have political axes to grind distort what this bill is about.

“This bill is about protecting your child from child pornography; is there politics in that? This bill is about stopping somebody from luring your son or daughter into some dark alley to do whatever, using the Internet for those purposes. This bill is to stop people from breaking into your cell phone and computer and using your data.

This bill is to stop these scams where somebody will e-mail you and tell you you’ve won a million dollars or there’s a million of oil money somewhere.”

Gonsalves asserted that none of those things are currently defined as crimes in St Vincent and the Grenadines, adding that there are elements in the bill about making threats to people and defamation, “about telling lies on people on the Internet”.

Stating that the bill includes a section on cyber bullying, Gonsalves noted that in the United States and the United Kingdom, children have killed themselves because they were bullied and harassed by their peers.

“Must we not do something to protect them? We have children who are living their lives online now on social media and there’s no system of protection for these children.”

Gonsalves added if the bill is read in its entirety, a reasonable mind would confess that certain parts should be adjusted. However, its purpose is to protect people.

“We want to have the best possible bill passed when it’s time to pass the bill, but don’t just shoot little pot shots and inflate yourself so much to think that you are so important that the government drafter sat down and drafted a 40-page bill to get you, because you are in your bathroom or your bedroom somewhere in another country writing tweets about something in the government. You are not that important!”

Gonsalves also commented on a town hall meeting being held to discuss the bill, which will be hosted later this evening by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association (SVGHRA).

“The secretary of this body is a member of parliament, but the secretary of the body who is a member of parliament has not seen it fit to come to Parliament to discuss the bill, nor has she seen it fit to come to select committee to discuss the bill, but they want to discuss the bill in another venue.”

SEARCHLIGHT was invited to the town hall meeting and the letter head of the SVGHRA lists one Luann Hadaway as the organization’s secretary. Hadaway is not a member of parliament.

Gonsalves noted that the entity did not invite him, as the Minister of Telecoms, nor did it invite the Minister of Legal Affairs to the consultation. He further noted that no one from the Ministry of Technology or from the Attorney General’s office received an invitation either.

“So, it already tells you the kind of conversation they want to have on the document.

“Now I want us to have a reasonable, rational conversation and I want us to have the best bill. I ain’t draft the bill so it is not that I am wedded to any word or words in the bill, but we need a bill that protects Vincentians online and cyberspace is the new space that we all occupy.”

Gonsalves stated that there are no laws currently in St Vincent that protect people in cyber space adding that that is what the bill is about.

“It is not about politics at all,” he said.