Officially the first clipping I’ve included was written prior to Bill C-22’s tabling. I include it to illustrate how long this matter has been before the public, special committees, and parliament. ACT highlights a number of legitimate concerns that need to be addressed in order to prepare an inclusive, non harmful adjustment to the current laws.
March 2000
ACT Statement On the Legal Age of Consent To Sexual Activity
November 2000
Tuesday, November 21, 2000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Vancouver, B.C., is becoming popular with sex tourists who prey on children, according to a report on the global fight against child exploitation.
“In Vancouver, the increase in child sex tourism is attributed to rising levels of homeless children, the city’s proximity to child sex hot spots in Asia and to the fact that information on the city’s child sex trade is available on the Internet,” said the report by Beyond Borders, a Winnipeg-based child abuse watchdog group.
Spokesman Mark Hecht, a lawyer in Ottawa, said at a news conference Monday that Canada’s age of consent for sex — 14 — may also help lure pedophiles to the West Coast.
“We have created a local sex tourism destination in British Columbia,” Hecht said.
Beyond Borders released the report in Canada on behalf of a group called End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking. The 178-page report, “Looking Back, Thinking Forward,” was sponsored by the European Union and the Swedish International Development Agency.
It surveyed the response of 124 countries, rating them on their plans, monitoring systems and legislative measures to fight child sexual exploitation.
Tuesday December 19, 2006
Age of Consent at 14 Makes Canada Favoured Sex Tourism Destination
Canada a haven for pedophiles
By Hilary White
OTTAWA, December 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A newly released report says that the age of consent for vaginal sex in Canada – currently set at 14 – has made this country a favorite destination for child-sex “tourism”. The Global Monitoring Report on the Status of Action against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, says that Canada’s age of consent has made Canada a haven for pedophiles.
The report was issued by the Bangkok-based organization, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, or ECPAT International. It gives Canada 17 recommendations, including raising the age of consent from 14 to 16.
EPCAT International monitors and studies the problem of child sexual exploitation around the world. The Global Monitoring Report says that legal action is not enough and that a culture of sexual exploitation of children has arisen around the world in recent years, particularly in media imagery and the internet. This, the group says, coincides with trends of children being frequently victimized by adults for commercial sex, “under the wrongful concept of their ability to consent to exploitation.”
The report recommends that “all children up to the age of 18 …be afforded legal protection from commercial sexual exploitation.”
Also
Federal Justice Minister Vic Toews told the CBC that Americans are being prosecuted under US laws for using Canada as a sex-tourism destination. “It’s ironic in Canada we can’t prosecute them, and yet Americans coming here and taking advantage of our children, when they go back, can face criminal prosecutions and lengthy imprisonment.” Toews told the CBC.
The CBC report quotes Toronto police constable, Paul Krawczyk, who said, “I’ve been in pedophile chat rooms that discuss Canada having such a low age of consent that they tell other pedophiles to travel to Canada because of that. Sixty-year-olds engaging in sexual activities with 14 or 15-year-olds is not appropriate.”
February 2007
Age of consent, gun changes priorities for justice minister
The Conservative government will quickly move to raise the age of consent for sexual activity and introduce measures to crack down on gun violence, the new justice minister said on Tuesday.
Vic Toews spoke briefly as he headed out of a Tory caucus meeting, a day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet were sworn in.
May 7, 2007
Canada Bill to Raise Age of Consent for Sex Passes Commons
Still has to pass in Liberal dominated Senate
By John-Henry Westen and Hilary White
OTTAWA, May 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill to raise the age of sexual consent in Canada from its current 14 years to 16 passed the House of Commons Friday night. Interestingly, the voice vote as recorded by Hansard indicated that those opposed to the bill seemed to be in the majority according to the Speaker’s verdict.
May 11, 2007
Pass Age of Protection legislation “for our children and without delay,”
OTTAWA – “Now that the long-awaited Age of Protection legislation [Bill C-22] has been referred to the Senate, let’s pass it quickly,” says Dick Harris, MP for Cariboo-Prince George and BC Caucus Chair.
Harris says he followed the earlier related committee hearings “with intense interest” since Canada’s New Government tabled Bill C-22 months ago. Police officers were among the many witnesses who appeared at the committee stage, each decrying the number of predators, inside and outside of Canada, who seek children and young teens. Canada has increasingly become a “destination of choice” because of a low age of consent at 14 years of age and, to parents’ dismay, little or nothing could be done by the police or courts, explained Harris.
June 21
Egale failing queer youth, members say
Despite its alleged lack of attention to education, Egale has been praised for its handling of queer legal matters.
Andrew Brett, a gay youth activist in Toronto, says Egale was instrumental in lobbying against Bill C-22, which will see the age of consent raised from 14 to 16.
“[Interim executive director] Kaj Hasselriis did a lot of things, from dealing with the media and helping make presentations to the Justice Committee,” Brett says. “Ariel Troster [who left the board in August] was absolutely amazing on the age of consent issue,” he adds.
Now that Bill C-22 has passed through the House of Commons (it is now being debated in the Senate), Brett says upcoming issues for Egale to tackle could include Sexual Reassignment Surgery in Ontario “and, of course, gender identity being added to human rights legislation.”
Peter Bochove, a Toronto gay bathhouse owner and co-founder of the Committee to Abolish the 19th Century, which challenges Canada’s laws that still criminalize some forms of consensual sex, says he would like to see Egale get involved with the rights of sex-trade workers, the criminalization of HIV, as well as lobby for the age of consent for anal sex, which is 18, to be lowered.
“These are paramount issues,” he says. “And Egale needs to be in shape to tackle them.”
Bochove says the resignations have caused him, too, to question Egale’s ongoing ability to effectively represent the queer community in Canada.
“Organizations do fall apart,” he notes. “It sounds like something nasty is going on that none of us knows about.”
September 2007
Age Of Consent bill dies as PM calls new session
The Tory government’s Age Of Consent bill has died, following Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision Sep 4 to end the current session of Parliament.
The current session was set to resume Sep 17, but Harper announced that he will prorogue Parliament and open with a new session on Oct 16.
In Canada’s political system, bills expire if they are not passed by the time a session ends. However, the government still has the ability to reintroduce expired bills in future sessions.
Among the bills that have died is C-22, an act to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16.
Andrew Brett, a member of the youth-led Age Of Consent Committee, opposed C-22 before the parliamentary justice committee in March. He says he is in disbelief over the unexpected ‘good’ news.
Will the Prorogation of Parliament Hurt Canadian Children?
Bill C-22, intended to raise the age of sexual consent form 14 to 16, dies as a result of prorogation. It has passed the House of Commons but sits unpassed in the Senate.
by Douglas Cryer
On September 4th, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his intention to prorogue Parliament – a decision which has the potential to negatively affect Canadian children. When Parliament is prorogued the Parliamentary session is brought to an end and most unfinished business dies, committees cease to function and are started fresh in the next session of Parliament (i.e. after Parliament resumes on October 16th, 2007). One of the Bills that dies as a result of prorogation has passed the House of Commons but sits unpassed in the Senate – Bill C-22, Age of Protection, which would raise the age of sexual consent from age 14 to 16.
*********I’ll be updating this media list as I can.
Filed under: Media Coverage
