Bill C-22 Will Cut Canada's Sex Victims by Thousands
June 8th, 2007
by Aaron Graham, Edited by Faytene Kryskow

On May 4, Members of Parliament passed Bill C-22, which raises the age of consent from 14 to 16 years. Currently C-22 is on it's way to Royal Assent and, if passed in the Senate, could significanlty reduce the number of sex victims across the country. The passing of this legislation would also weaken Canada's reputation from that as a haven for sexual predators and place us in line with standards held by most other western nations on this issue.

Children and youth account for 61% of all victims of sexual assaults reported to police, and according to 122 police departments, there were over 9,000 child and youth victims of sexual assaults in 2003, 80% of the victims were female. Teenaged girls aged 14-to-17 accounted for 31% of all child and youth sexual assault victims and females aged 11-to-13 accounted for 23%.

In the United States, the age of consent in most states is either 16 or 18 years, while other countries such as New Zealand, Russia and the United Kingdom, have placed their age of consent at 16.

"Police point out that this low age is often known by sexual predators and encourages them to target Canada in search of younger victims who would not be able to consent in countries with a higher age of consent" said Hon. Vic Toews in a second reading. Another MP, Rob Moore, stated at the Justice Committee hearings that though the average Canadian may not know that the current age of sexual consent in Canada is 14yrs of age you better believe that most pedofiles do. Doug Cryer from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada also pointed out in a recent conversation with on of our Members that a 40 yrs old man can have sex with a ‘consenting’ boy or girl but if that same 40yr old takes pictures of the act it is classified as child pornography. The incosistencies here are blatant. To give the youth of our nation an even greater slap in the face, the Canadian Government agreed with the UN Converntion of the Rights of Children’s definition of a child as anyone under the age of 18yrs. This means, currently in Canada, we are saying it is ok for adults to have sex with children. SICK is the only descriptive. Ask Donny Melanson, a Member of 4 MY Canada and a former boy-child prostitute on the streets of Vancouver. In Donny’s own words, “It is well known on the streets, the younger the sex partner the better.” What kind of Canada are we building? What kind of Canada are we maintaining? As youth and young adults in this nation we feel these are not only good but important questions.

Cybertip.ca is Canada's national tip line for on-line sexual exploitation of children. It is supported by the federal government under the national strategy to protect children from sexual exploitation on the Internet.

Cybertip.ca reported in March of 2005 that luring reports represented 10% of all reports received during its two year pilot phase. Of these reports, 93% of the victims were female and the majority, or 73%, were between the ages of 12 and 15 years. These reports indicate that individuals 14 and 15 years old are at greater risk of being sexually exploited through Internet luring and so we believe that Bill C-22 will enable police to more effectively protect youth aged 14 and 15 years from on-line predatory behavior." One pimp said it well, “There aint no rules, that’s why I win.” It is time to give our law enforcers some rules to work with so that sicko-s like this have less to ‘play’ with.

"This issue has often come before us and, as in the past, I hope that it will once again unite us in condemning adult sexual predators who prey on vulnerable youth, for this is what lies at the core of Bill C-22", said Hon. Ethel Cochrane in a Senate debate.

The legislative will we have seen in the House of Commons is encouraging and, for this, all concerned Canadians should be thankful. Unconcerned Canadians should become concerned. The safety of thousands of our Canadian youth is at stake. Hopefully the lure of summer picnics an party politics will not impeded force of reason and thereby stall C-22 from receiving royal assent speedily. If it is stalled there is a good chance some 14 or 15 yr old is going to have to pay the price this summer. Hopefully it will not be yours, nor the grandchild of some Senator that decided to go golfing instead of to committee.
Copyrighted 2007