New Library of Parliament Legislative Summary on Age of Sexual Consent

The Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament has just published a new legislative summary concerning Bill C-22: An Act to amend the Criminal Code(age of protection):

"The bill amends the Criminal Code to raise the age, from 14 to 16 years, at which a person can consent to non-exploitative sexual activity. The existing age of consent of 18 years for exploitative sexual activity will be maintained. This applies to sexual activity involving prostitution, pornography, or where there is a relationship of trust, authority, dependency or any other situation that is otherwise exploitative of a young person".

"Bill C-22 creates an exception with respect to an accused who engages in sexual activity with a 14- or 15-year-old youth and who is less than five years older than the youth. It also creates an exception for transitional purposes for an accused who is married to a youth, or who is the common-law partner of a youth and is expecting a child with the youth and the sexual activity was not otherwise prohibited before the day the Act comes into force. The bill maintains an existing “close in age” exception that exists for 12- or 13-year-olds who engage in sexual activity with a peer who is less than two years older, provided the relationship is not exploitative".

"The stated reason behind the introduction of Bill C-22 is to better protect youth against sexual exploitation by adult predators. The former Minister of Justice has said that adults who prey upon young people are the targets of the bill, not consenting teenagers".

It is possible to track the progress of Bill C-22 on LEGISinfo, the parliamentary legislative research site. LEGISinfo includes RSS feeds.