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ROCKING THE BOAT: AGE OF CONSENT FOR SEXUAL ACTIVITY

REAL Women's views usually seem to be in opposition to "the establishment", i.e. the federal government and most of the media. It's not that we deliberately set out to contradict them -- it's just that our organization generally holds views which are not politically correct. Yet, since our inception in 1983, over time, our challenge of the status quo or "conventional wisdom" of the day has, in some instances, gradually become the view of the majority of Canadians. REAL Women's opposition to employment equity and universal day care are two such examples.

Critics claim that REAL Women wants to push society back to the 1950s. Rather, the facts show that we are apparently in the forefront, with sound, reasonable policies for the future.

On one issue recently, our concerns have scored a direct hit -- the issue of the age of consent for sexual activity with adults. Apparently, most Canadians agreed with us on this issue right from the start.

Last March, REAL Women wrote to the federal and all the provincial Attorneys General and the provincial Ministers of Community and Social Services expressing our concerns on this matter. In our letter, we stated:

Our Association is deeply concerned about under-age prostitution which is a growing problem across the country.

It is troublesome, not only as a moral issue, but also because it impacts on a whole community -- drugs, robberies and assaults all go hand in hand with prostitution, and youngsters are particularly ill-equipped to handle these situations. Moreover, according to Statistics Canada, one in every twenty women murdered in Canada in 1995 was a prostitute: Most were killed by their customers.

The dilemma of teen-age prostitution appears to have been exacerbated by the fact that the age of consent for sexual activity was lowered from 16 years of age to 14 years in the 1987 amendments to the Criminal Code. Therefore, youngsters over 14 years of age, both male and female, who are involved in prostitution, can refuse assistance on the ground that they have the authority to give their consent to the sexual activity and that neither the parents nor the police can legally object to it. Added to this, under Canada's prostitution laws, the sale of sex itself is not prohibited, but only the communicating or soliciting of it -- which makes convictions much more difficult to obtain.

The provincial Attorneys General and Ministers quickly responded to our letter, both expressing their interest in the issue and sharing their concerns with us. Some of the Attorneys General and Ministers stated in their letters that they had either placed this matter on the Cabinet agenda, called a special meeting of their staff or had had our letter distributed to all other relevant government departments for review and comment. We obviously struck a sensitive nerve, except, perhaps, with the federal Attorney General who replied only that there was an "ongoing review of the matter".

In December, the Prime Minister and Attorneys General met with the federal Minister of Justice, Anne McLellan, in Montreal where this issue was placed on the agenda. The Attorneys General requested the federal government raise the age of consent for sexual activity of females with adults from 14 to 16 years.

BC Attorney General, Ujjal Dosanjh, stated:

Today, an adult can legally have sex with girls as young as 14 years -- it only becomes a criminal offence if he pays for it.

A 14-year old girl clearly does not have the maturity to enter into sexual activity with an adult or to make life-saving choices regarding the conditions of that sexual activity.

Ms. McLellan acknowledged that she had been vigorously canvassed by several of her provincial counterparts to raise the age of consent but stated "... the best way to deal with these issues is within the family." (It's surely novel to have a feminist refer to the family as a solution to a problem.) However, the obvious difficulty is that the family is helpless to do anything, if the child has reached the legal age of consent of 14 years.

Moreover, it is most unfortunate that the recommendation to raise the age of consent is for females only, thus, leaving vulnerable 14-year-old boys the easy prey of adult sexual exploiters.

This double standard is unacceptable. Moreover, if Madam Justice Rosalie Abella (of the Ontario Court of Appeal) in 1995 can lower the age of consent for anal intercourse, which she referred to as "a basic form of sexual expression for gay men", from 18 to 14 years on the grounds that the age of consent for females was set at 14 years and this different age of consent was "discriminatory," it would appear that raising the age of consent to 16 for females only will be equally "discriminatory" and will not withstand a legal challenge.

Please write to:

The Hon. Anne McLellan
Minister of Justice
Room 707 Confederation Bldg.
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Please request that the age of consent for sexual intercourse be raised from 14 to 16 for both males and females.

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