|
BACK TO TABLE OF
CONTENTS
What Happened To The Proposed Changes To The Age
Of Consent For Sexual Activity?
Something peculiar seems to have happened to Bill
C-15 (Criminal Code amendments) which was tabled in the House of
Commons in March.
This Bill proposed 78 amendments to the Criminal
Code, ranging from prohibitions against child pornography on the
Internet, to prohibitions against animal abuse (Justice Minister
Anne MacLellan is an animal lover of note.)
The oddity is that Bill C-15 does NOT include any
mention of a change in the age of consent for sexual activity.
It is not that the issue has not been thoroughly
and carefully examined. In fact, proposals to change the sexual
age of consent have been around for over three years.
- At the October 29-30, 1998 meeting in Regina
of the federal/provincial and territorial Attorneys General, the
impetus for changing the age of consent came, surprisingly, from
then B.C. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh. He made the request
to raise the age of consent for vaginal sex from 14 to 16 years
to facilitate easier prosecution of adults who have sex with children.
"A 14-year-old girl clearly does not have the maturity to
enter into sexual activity," he stated in a news release.
At that meeting, however, the age of consent for anal sex (homosexual),
set at 18 years, was not discussed.
- In November 1999, the Justice Department undertook
a "consultation" on Child Victims and the Criminal Justice
System. One key element of the consultation was to request the
public's opinion on the age of sexual consent for sexual intercourse.
The consultation paper noted that Canadians have one of the lowest
ages for sexual consent in the world. The age of consent in the
US, Australia, England, Belgium and Luxembourg is 16 years of
age and 17 years of age, in Ireland. The consultation was completed
in March 2000.
Unfortunately, the results of this consultation
have never been made public.
- In December 1999, the issue of age of consent
was discussed again at the federal/provincial and territorial
Attorneys General annual meeting in Vancouver. It was unanimously
agreed at this meeting that the raising of the age of consent
for vaginal sex to 16 years from 14 years of age was necessary
to protect children from predators and prostitution. Concern was
expressed, however, that the change should not make it illegal
for young people to have sex with each other (heaven forbid) and
that there should be a "close-in-age" exception for
children who consent with someone within two years of their age.
- In October 2000, the federal Justice Department
confirmed its plans to set the age of consent for all sexual activity
- vaginal and anal (homosexual) intercourse - at 16 years of age
to accommodate court rulings that had declared that setting the
age of consent at 18 for anal sex, but 14 years for heterosexual
sex, violated the Charter of Rights. For example, in May 1995,
Madame Justice Rosalie Abella of the Ontario Court of Appeal stated
that anal sex was "a basic form of sexual expression for
gay men," and that it was discriminatory to have an age gap,
which infringed on the guarantee of equality. (See Reality,
July/August 1995, page 7, "Court Lowers Age for Homosexual
Sex.")
It is significant that when the Criminal Code was
previously amended in 1987, at which time the age of consent for
homosexual practices was reduced from 21 years to 18 years, then
Justice Minister Raymond Hnatyshyn explained why it was necessary
to set different ages for different kinds of sexual activity. He
stated at the Committee hearings (27-11-1986:1:30):
… Medical evidence does indicate different
kinds of psychological or physical harm may attach to different
types of intercourse for young persons. Medical experts are not
certain at what age sexual preference is established, and many argue
that the age is fixed only in the later teen years. Also the question
here is the heightened danger of contracting Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome or other sexually transmitted diseases from anal intercourse
since the tissues are more susceptible to physical damage from penetration.
So for a variety of reasons, quite unrelated
to any question of discrimination at all, I think there are a
number of bases upon which we have proposed that this provision
should satisfy the recommendations of the two commissions which
spent a lot of time considering appropriateness of changes in
the law with respect to the whole area of child sexual relations.
So we have brought forward legislation which is based on the recommendations
of Badgley and Fraser. …
The necessity to have a higher age of consent for homosexual (anal)
sex was recently verified in a publication by a 28-member medical
group in Britain (including highly placed obstetricians and gynecologists),
called "Health Professionals Concerned for Children and Young
People."
These professionals sent a strongly worded memo
to British MPs and members of the House of Lords in November 2000,
stating that the health risks for anal sex are not generally known
and, indeed, have been hushed up, either because of a reluctance
to speak about such a subject, or because of political correctness.
The memo went on to state that by reducing the age of consent for
anal intercourse, vulnerable teenagers are introduced to a lifestyle
which:
- is strongly linked to premature death, life expectancy
being reduced by 25-30 years;
- causes physical damage to the anal sphincter
so that 1 in 3 become incontinent in regard to faeces (excreta);
some need to wear incontinence pads and pants or have a colostomy;
- spreads: - bowel infections like e. coli, salmonella,
amoeba, shigella;
- bowel and blood-borne virus infections like hepatitis and HIV,
both of which are [potentially] lethal;
- sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhoea, syphilis,
chalamydia, etc.
Finally, the memo concluded:
… Men who practice anal sex and also have
vaginal sex with their female sexual partners cause very severe
pelvic infections in these women [by transferring bowel infectious
agents to the female reproductive tract] and subsequent infertility
or chronic ill health.
Since Canada's "progressive" courts have
ruled that "equality" under the Charter requires the same
age of consent for both heterosexual and homosexual sex, then why
not raise the age of consent of heterosexual (vaginal) sex to match
that of anal sex, as spelled out in the Criminal Code since 1987,
at 18 years of age? That would certainly provide the much-vaunted
"equality" required by our misguided courts and would
also provide heterosexual youth with some protection from the frightening
health risks involved with their sexual practises.
Raising the age of consent to 18 years for sexual
activity with adults, by the way, would make the Criminal Code provisions
consistent with the Young Offenders Act, which provides special
protection for youths under 18 years of age within the criminal
justice system. Moreover, raising the age of consent for sexual
activity to 18 will also bring the Criminal Code provisions in line
with most provincial child abuse legislation, as well as laws relating
to the sale of alcohol and tobacco to young persons. (Most provinces
permit the sale of these substances only to those over 18 years
of age.)
If the age of consent is set at 18 years of age
for all sexual intercourse between adults and young persons,
(anal and otherwise), for both male and female individuals,
it may not save all youth from sexual predators, but it will serve
as a deterrent to some deviants and it will also serve as a clear
signal that society views, with abhorrence, adult sexual activity
with vulnerable youngsters.
REAL Women has proposed this amendment to the age
of consent laws since March 1997, when we wrote to all the provincial
Attorneys General and to the Justice Minister, Allan Rock, proposing
that the age of consent be raised to 18 years of age. Perhaps it
was this initiative that helped place the age of consent on the
agenda of the federal/provincial/territorial Attorneys General the
following year. (See Reality, March/April 1997, p. 1, "Sexual
Abuse of Our Children.")
Nothing has yet been done. It is TIME for the federal
government to move on this all-important issue to protect our vulnerable
children.
It is not unreasonable, therefore, to politely
inquire of Justice Minister McLellan, why she has failed to raise
the age of consent for sexual activity. Why is there such an apparent
reluctance for her to move on the matter - especially since she
has the full agreement of the provincial Attorneys General (who
must enforce the law) to do so? Please indicate that the age of
consent for all sexual activity should be set at 18 years.
PLEASE WRITE TO:
The Right Hon. Jean Chrétien
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington St., 2nd Floor
Ottawa ON K1A 0A2
Tel: 613-992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900
The Honourable Ms. Anne McLellan
Minister of Justice
Justice Building
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0H8
Tel: 613-992-4621
Fax: 613-990-7255
Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
BACK TO TABLE OF
CONTENTS
|
