Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Just to be clear, the bill as introduced has a transitional marriage exemption, but the age of 16 is consistent. The federal government hasn't overall exercised its jurisdiction to set a minimum age to marry. In two instances, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act states that any person under the age of 16 years will not be recognized as a spouse or common-law partner of a foreign national, and the Federal Law–Civil Law Harmonization Act also prescribes the minimum age as 16 years.
We really don't want to get into making exceptions in the future, as has happened in some other jurisdictions. I want to understand exactly what Mr. Comartin is getting at, but we don't want to make entering into some formal arrangement like marriage or some other partnership a blanket defence, or an excuse for violating the intent of what we're trying to do in Bill C-22. It sets the age of consent at 16 and provides a close-in-age exemption.
Some provinces have a lower age than 16 when someone can marry. Bill C-22 respects that. If a province sets the age when someone can marry at 15, Bill C-22 respects that, but the close-in-age exemption has to be in place. The close-in-age exemption we have set for 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds, for example, is five years. So in those jurisdictions where someone can marry at 15, if it's within five years there's absolutely no conflict whatsoever.
Going forward, in some cases it would be at the discretion of a judge. I don't know if Ms. Morency wants to expand on that.
Overall, the government doesn't want to create loopholes that will allow some people to get around entering into these types of great-in-age relationships, using the shield of marriage or a prospective marriage.