Thanks very much for this opportunity, Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
My name is Andrea Cohen. I'm currently president of the board of the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, and that's my voluntary life. In my day job, I'm also the executive director of a large community health centre in Toronto, in the neighbourhood of Lawrence Heights. Every year we deal with thousands of vulnerable youth, providing both primary care and health promotion programs.
With me is Linda Capperauld, who's the executive director of the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, and our head office is here in Ottawa.
The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health is a national, member-driven charitable organization focusing exclusively on sexual and reproductive health and rights. We've been around for over 40 years, working both in Canada and internationally. We represent a national network of 26 affiliate members across Canada and have great experience and success working with youth and parents in both education and health care delivery. Our federation includes the Canadian Youth for Choice, which is a rapidly growing national network of young people who are educating and advocating for the rights of youth regarding their own sexual health.
We support the intent of Bill C-22, which is to protect young people from sexual exploitation. However, this bill as it currently stands focuses only on the law enforcement aspects of protection. Law enforcement in and of itself does not protect youth; it only allows for prosecution once youth have already been exploited. If we are serious about protecting youth, then we must make sure they have the skills, education, and health services needed for them to make informed choices, to negotiate their sexual relationships, and to prevent abuses of power. Moreover, we must think about the possible unintended consequences of this bill.
We have three major concerns that we'd like to share with you today, but we've conveniently added three recommendations to go along with them.
First, young people do not seek out the information and sexual health services they need if they fear a lack of confidentiality. We know this from our long experience and from the research. We also know from experience that when a young person is able to build a trusting relationship with a health care provider or other professional, it creates a positive environment for counselling on decision-making, choice, and empowerment.
The perception or reality that a young person or his or her partner would be reported to authorities and prosecuted for consensual sexual activity outside of the five-year limit will result in sexually active youth not seeking or getting the health services they need. There are potential consequences to this. The prevention of unintended pregnancies, the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS will be seriously compromised.
Second, the increased age of consent could be used as justification for denying young people the sexual health education and services they need. Unfortunately we know that once a law is passed there is often little control over how it is used or interpreted. Educators and health professionals may be reluctant to enter into conversations about sexuality with young people under the proposed new age of consent due to uncertainty about their legal obligations, their own personal viewpoints, and parental and other pressures. This has happened in other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom.
Both our experience and best practice research show that sexual health education that begins early, is age appropriate, and includes skills building as well as factual information is effective in helping young people to negotiate relationships, to delay first sexual activity, and to practise safer sex when they become sexually active. This education is essential for youth to learn ways in which to protect themselves from potentially exploitive situations. As surprising as it may sound, even today sexual health education is inconsistent and at times non-existent for many youth in Canada.
Third, the Criminal Code of Canada includes a clause that sets the age of consent for anal sex at 18 years, which is higher than for any other type of sexual activity. There is no logical or medical reason to treat one type of sexual activity differently from others. Both the Ontario and Quebec courts of appeal have already found this distinction to be unconstitutional.
While this clause exists, it means that, for example, two 16-year-olds who engage in consensual anal sex could be prosecuted, regardless of the intent of Bill C-22 not to criminalize consensual teenage activity.
The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health offers the following three recommendations in light of those concerns.
Amend Bill C-22 and all relevant legislation to ensure that information provided by a young person when accessing sexual health education information and medical services is considered to be privileged unless there is evidence of exploitation. This would mean that if a young person disclosed to a health care provider a consensual relationship with a person outside of the five-year exemption, this would be kept confidential and not be reported unless there was evidence of exploitation.
The second recommendation is to continue to provide strong federal government support to the Joint Consortium for School Health, which is a working group of provincial and federal ministries working together to try to increase the ability of the school system to teach topics of health education, including sexual health education. This important national initiative will help ensure that age-appropriate, accurate, and unbiased sexual health education is provided to children and youth in schools across Canada.
The third recommendation is to remove section 159 from the Criminal Code of Canada. This section sets the age of consent for anal sex at 18 years, which is higher than any other type of sexual activity. This will make the age of consent uniform for all sexual practices and orientations.
We thank you very much for the opportunity to present to the committee today.