Thank you, Chair.
Colleagues, I'm proposing to replace line 14 on page 5 with the following:
in paragraph (a.l), including the reason that the complainant does not have the capacity to understand the nature of the activity or is not aware that they are not obliged to consent to the activity;
Colleagues, my rationale for moving this amendment comes in particular from testimony that we heard at this committee from Professor Janine Benedet. She said:
I guess I see it as a definition of incapacity. We currently have a definition that says consent is “the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question”. The question the code leaves unanswered is in what circumstances that voluntary agreement could appear to be present but in fact is not. I shouldn't say that it leaves it unanswered. Some circumstances are enumerated, for example, where the accused induces the complainant to participate by abusing a position of trust.
Professor Benedet's testimony was just seeking to have a little bit more clarification in this particular part of the code. I hope I've convinced my colleagues to support this amendment, just to give the code and this particularly important piece of our law the clarity that it deserves. I'll leave it to any comments. Thank you.