A private members bill by the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Member of Parliament is getting closer to becoming a reality.

Bill C-291, written by Frank Caputo and sponsored by North Okanagan – Shuswap MP, Mel Arnold, is moving onto the Senate after passing third reading in the House of Commons.

The bill looks to change the name of of ‘child pornography’ in Canadian law to ‘child exploitation and abuse material’.

“We are obviously talking with Senators already and our hope is that it will make its way through the senate very quickly and with any luck, the term child pornography will no longer be in Canadian Law hopefully by this spring,” Caputo said, on the NL Morning News on Tuesday.

Caputo says the reasoning behind his bill is that the term ‘pornography’ assumes consent has been given, something he says someone who is underage is unable to do.

“A little over a year ago as I stood on people’s doorsteps, I promised them I would change how we look at sexual offenses against children,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

“Today, this bill passing unanimously is a major milestone in fulfilling my promise to keep children safe and recognize the harm occurring when they are abused.”

For Bill C-291 to become law, it will need to be approved by the Senate, which could suggest amendments – though Caputo does not expect that to happen. Once it clears the Senate, the bill will go to the Governor General for Royal Assent.

Caputo has another “complementary” bill – C-299 – in the House of Commons that aims to raise the maximum penalty for the worst sexual offences from 10 and 14 years, to life in prison.

“We treat the taking of property by force more seriously than we treat the taking of consent, the taking of dignity by force and my view is that has to change and that is why I put a private members bill forward that was complementary to Bill C-291,” he said on the NL Morning News.

Bill C-299 passed first reading on Nov. 4, 2022, though there hasn’t been progress on that since then.

– With files from Victor Kaisar