Peter Stock
The Interim
In late September, when the Paul Martin Liberals defeated yet another effort in Parliament by Conservative MPs to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 years to 16, it came as little surprise to battle-weary child-protection advocates.
Despite repeated demands and growing pressure from the attorney-generals of every province, numerous police associations, anti-child prostitution advocates and pro-family leaders, the Liberals continued to refuse to act. With support from most of the Bloc Quebecois, the Liberals defeated a motion introduced by B.C. Conservative MP Nina Grewal and a private member’s bill brought in by Alberta Conservative MP Rick Casson.
While the vote result was expected, the campaign to raise the age of consent by pro-family leaders and Conservative MPs is clearly beginning to have an impact. Most noticeable in Parliament was an increased level of support from NDP backbench MPs, who have obviously been hearing from their constituents on the issue.
Yet, more surprising were the deceptive tactics chosen by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to attempt to keep the status quo, whereby adults 30, 40 or 50 years old can legally have sex with boys or girls as young as 14.
Cotler, author of the infamous Bill C-38 that redefined marriage, sent a memo to all Liberal MPs explaining why he was going to vote to oppose the Conservative bill and motion, and encouraging his fellow Liberals to follow his lead. While Cotler made his standard unsubstantiated claim that teens were protected from adult sexual predators by provisions of the Criminal Code that prohibit “exploitation” of teens, he went further. He made the ludicrous claim that if the Conservative legislation were to pass, even “kissing” between teens would be criminalized.
According to Loraine McNamara, president of REAL Women of Canada, Cotler was simply being dishonest. She said, “Mr. Cotler knows, or should know, that the Criminal Code currently provides that it is a defence against a sexual charge if an accused is less than two years older than a complainant under 14 years and who has consented to the act, if he is not in a relationship of trust or authority toward that complainant. Mr. Cotler’s explanation that a boy, on his 16th birthday kissing his 14-year-old girlfriend, would constitute a sexual offence, is preposterous. There is no basis in law nor in legal precedent for criminalizing such an action.”
McNamara added, “The issue here is the protection of vulnerable adolescents, 16 years of age, from sexual acts by adults. It has nothing to do with preventing young people expressing their affections together.”
The Liberal claim that kissing would become criminal is “preposterous,” agreed Conservative justice critic and former Manitoba attorney-general Vic Toews. He worried that, “Canada has one of the lowest ages of sexual consent laws in the world. This fact has put our children at risk of exploitation from much older sexual predators, some of whom even travel to Canada specifically because of our low age of consent.”
Given the growing chorus of demand for child protection, why won’t the Liberals raise the age of consent? One clue may be found in the advocacy of EGALE, the homosexual lobby group that has so successfully advocated for the passage of marriage redefinition Bill C-38 and many other pernicious anti-family initiatives.
EGALE has deep connections in the Justice Department and with many MPs and ministers in the Liberal caucus. The group has actively lobbied to keep the age of consent low.
A low age of consent protects older homosexuals who are involved in actively recruiting young males into the homosexual lifestyle – a lifestyle that some top Liberals are themselves involved in.
