MONTREAL — The Bloc Québécois MP who wants to stiffen the rules against violent programming believes the Broadcasting Act isn’t doing enough to protect children, despite arguments to the contrary heard this week in Ottawa.

‘There has been a rise in violence on TV. The system doesn’t work because it’s based on complaints,’ says Bernard Bigras, MP for Montreal’s Rosemont-Petite-Patrie.

‘The Broadcasting Act needs to be amended to penalize those networks that show too much violence,’ he says. ‘The specifics haven’t been worked out yet. But a good start would be to not play films that are meant for mature audiences between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., when children tend to watch TV.’

His private members bill, C-327, received its second reading in the House of Commons earlier this week. It calls on the CRTC to tighten its rules ‘respecting the broadcast of violent scenes’ and for it to monitor broadcasters more closely, publishing regular reports on their compliance.

Bigras points to a Laval University study that reveals physical violence increased by 378% and psychological violence was up 271% between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Canada’s six major TV broadcasters between 1993 and 2001. Researchers Guy Paquette and Jacques de Guise also found that over 80% of the violence aired in Canada originates in the U.S.

First brought forward in 2000, Bigras was inspired to create the bill by Virginie Larivière, a Quebec woman who in the early 1990s started a cross-Canada petition against violence on TV, blaming it for the brutal rape and murder of her 11-year-old sister. More than one million Canadians signed on, including then-PM Brian Mulroney. The petition led to a special parliamentary study of the issue and, in 1994, a new broadcasting code to curb violence.

Bigras’ critics say his bill is unnecessary, and that his data is out-of-date.

‘It seems as though this bill isn’t well thought out. Its scope is too large. We don’t need further regulation for violence on TV. There is a policy in place that works well.’ says Maureen Parker, executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada. Parker believes that the CRTC’s capacity to penalize those who defy the Broadcasting Act needs to be reinforced, however. CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein made the same point during a recent appearance before Parliament’s heritage committee.

C-327 follows this week’s furor over C-10, the Tory bill that proposes to give the heritage minister the power to withhold tax credits from film or TV projects deemed offensive by Ottawa bureaucrats. C-10 is expected to stay on hold until about April, pending review by the Senate banking committee.