The Conservative Party has long sought to raise the age of consent for sexual relations from the present 14 years to 16 years of age. It brought this issue forward on Opposition Day back in April 2002. Since then, several Conservative MPs have put forward private members’ bills to raise the age of consent. These bills have been overwhelmingly supported by their Conservative colleagues, but the Liberal party has resolutely refused to support raising of the age of consent because of political pressure from homosexuals. The latter want access to adolescent males, claiming that such teenagers should have “choice” as to their sexual activity to discover themselves and fulfill their sexual desires.
Conservative Justice Minister Vic Toews introduced Bill C-22 in the House of Commons on June 22, 2006. This bill includes an exception to allow young teenagers, who are within five years of age of each other, to be exempt from the age of consent provision. Mr. Toews explained that this five year gap for teenagers was included because the Conservatives didn’t want to criminalize consenting sexual conduct between youths, but “wanted to protect young people from adult predators…”
Sexual predators, who use the Internet to lure Canadian children for sexual purposes, have made the raising of the age of consent a critical issue, as Canada has one of the lowest ages of consent in the western world. This has resulted in pedophiles around the world focusing on Canadian children to lure them over the Internet. For example, in March 2003, a 32 year old Texas man came to Ottawa and had sex with a 14 year old boy he had met on the internet. When police raided the predator’s hotel room, they seized his computer, which had 288 pictures and movies of child pornography. Although the predator was charged with possession of child pornography, the police could not charge him with having sex with a minor, since the boy was 14 years of age and had “consented” to the act.
Opposition to Raising the Age of Consent
Homosexual activists, such as the lobby organization EGALE, the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario, the homosexual Sex Laws Committee, the Canadian AIDS Society and Planned Parenthood (recently re-named the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health), have all come out swinging against this proposed legislation, arguing that the Criminal Code already includes a provision which came into effect last July, that makes it illegal for people in positions of authority or trust to “exploit” young people by having sex with them if that person is under 18 years of age. Unfortunately, “sexual exploitation” is not defined in the Criminal Code and it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove that exploitation has occurred when a young victim claims that the sex act was consensual. Another problem with the provision is that it leaves it up to the judge to determine whether exploitation has occurred and this means that young persons, once in court, frequently suffer at the hands of defence lawyers, who aggressively cross-examine them, dispute their relationships with the older sexual partners. This leaves them emotionally exposed and vulnerable.
The groups opposing the raising of the age of consent also argue that it will cause adolescents to go “underground”, i.e. not receive assistance if they become pregnant or if their partner is an older man, whom they may want to protect. Nor, they claim, will adolescents seek sexual health information if they are below the age of 16 years.
It is also significant that homosexual activists are complaining that the Conservative bill to raise the age of consent discriminates against gay men, since the bill does not reduce the legal age for anal sex, which is currently set at 18 years in the Criminal Code. The activists demand that the age for anal sex should be the same as heterosexual or vaginal sex. EGALE claims that “one sexual act should not be treated any differently than any other sexual act”. There are, however, very cogent medical reasons for prohibiting anal sex to those under 18 years of age. This is because anal sex is the most dangerous for the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Anal sex causes tiny tears in the anal tissue, which, according to the website of the University of California, “are like giant highways for the HIV and STD viruses to get into the blood system.”
Surprisingly, the supposedly conservative National Post, in an editorial on February 11, 2006, stated that the difference in age for anal sex was “plainly discriminatory”. It said that it will “stigmatize homosexual and bisexual teenagers” and impose “moral judgments on the nature of the intimacy between young adults…” If only it were that simple! However, the National Post in its editorial of June 26, 2006, did go on record as supporting the raising of the age of consent to 16 years of age.
The real question to be addressed is whether society should bury its head, pretending that adolescents under 16 years of age are capable of giving their consent, or whether vulnerable young persons should be protected by the law. Fortunately, it seems that most believe it’s a protection issue.
The bill is supported by the Provincial Attorneys General, and, surprisingly, most of the NDP caucus and a few Liberal MPs. As a result, fortunately, the proposed bill is likely to be passed even without Liberal or the Bloc Quebecois Party support.
Please write to your MP and urge himher to vote in favour of the Age of Consent Bill – Bill C-22.
Your MP
c/o House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 |
