I find that question rather hard to grasp, but I want to commend the member for coming to the House for his annual visit.
This is quite bizarre. The member is suggesting that perhaps we should lower the age of the consent to 10 or 12. That is what he just said. He said, is 10 or 12 adequate to make the decision? I guess that is the position of NAMBLA, “...eight is too late”. That is their slogan. That is the point. The point is that there are putatively rational adults in this society who will make an argument in the public forum for reducing the age of sexual consent to eight, so we as the custodians of the laws of the country must make a prudential decision
. I submit that the age of 16 is the absolute bare minimum of physical, mental, emotional maturity for young people to make that kind of decision, but today, to allow an adult, a 50 year old, to engage in sexual activities with a 14 year old, I submit consists substantively of an act of pedophilia and ought to be criminalized because it is exploitation. I am shocked that the member would stand here and propose that a rational argument could be made in favour of such an obscene gesture.