Mr. Speaker, if we asked any adult Canadian if a 14 year old can make an informed decision involving sexual consent with an adult, they would overwhelmingly reject this premise.
It is no accident that the average age of recruitment for prostitution is age 14. Society feels the need to limit or protect 14 year old children by denying them access to movies with acts of violence and explicit sex. That is why the Canadian public is shocked when they discover the age of consent for sexual activity is 14. It offends the common sense of ordinary Canadians that vulnerable children as young as 14 can be targeted by adult sexual predators and as long as the act is considered consensual, it is perfectly legal. As a father of an 11 year old daughter, I find it unbelievable that in a short two and a half years she will be considered to be of an age where she can give consent to sexual activity with an adult. She has no peer group that would put the right kind of pressure on her not to do that.
Despite any argument on the contrary coming from government, the bottom line is that an age of consent as young as 14 can and does create a vulnerable target population of children for adults with predatory motives.
The Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association is a non-denominational, non-partisan grassroots association with a large and growing membership whose principle purposes are: to redress social injustice; to advocate, foster, safeguard and protect constitutional charter and social rights, traditional family values and parental rights; and to promote the establishment of traditional schools, social, educational institutions and charitable activities. This group, based in Vancouver, is 80% Canadian-Chinese and has worked tirelessly on important family and social issues in British Columbia and nationally. It is recognized as interveners at the supreme court on two ongoing court cases.
The reason I have described the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association is because it has arranged with my office to present 8,681 letters to the Minister of Justice, which I have right here with me. I will quote at length from its media release of last Friday. It says:
The John Robin Sharpe case exposed the weakness of the laws on child pornography, the liberality and permissiveness on the part of the judiciary and the resulting inability of our society collectively to protect the most vulnerable group--the children.
Currently in Canada, the age of consent to sex is 14. In 1987, the Mulroney government reduced the age of consent from 18 to 14. The federal Liberal government has made no genuine attempt to change this despite the united voice of the provinces for raising the age to 16. Parents, police and social service agencies are hindered in protecting children as young as 14 who are coerced into sex with adults. Children as young as 14 can be exposed to the risks associated with sexual activity such as emotional distress, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. Recent years have seen a significant increase in crimes of a sexual nature against children. Child prostitution, child pornography etc. are increasing at an alarming rate. The low age of consent encourages societal acceptance of early sexual behaviour and appetite for pedophiles. Problems associated with low age of consent to sex are deep emotional and mental health problems, STDS, cervical cancer, teen pregnancies, school-drop-outs and criminal behaviour.
Our Association's stand is that if youth are not able to consume alcohol, vote, volunteer for combat or make other major decisions until they reach 18, an activity and the resulting consequences as complicated as sexual activity should not be legal for children...
As it has been scheduled for the current session of Parliament to discuss the age of consent next Tuesday, we have collected 8,681 individual petitions from concerned citizens including parents and people from all walks of life urging Parliament to raise the age of consent for sex from 14 to 18.
That ends the media release of last Friday from the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values.
In 1997 the justice minister answered a question from my then caucus colleague Sharon Hayes asking for the age of consent to be raised to at least 16. The minister at that time refused to commit to raising the age of consent saying that the issue was only one of the issues involved in protecting children. It is now five years later and the government still has not dealt with this one issue involved in protecting children.
The Canada Family Action Coalition says the following on its website, and I give credit to Peter Stock for authorship since I am quoting liberally. It states:
When learning that the age of consent for sex is only 14 Canadians react with shock and disbelief...“We're dealing with a lot of calls from people expressing their anger at learning that such law exists in Canada. Some need to see the actual law in writing before they will believe that it is the case. The most common question I hear from people, after they express how appalled they are, is who is responsible for this?”...
“Parents ask me, “how could they do this to children? Aren't they parents too and weren't they supposed to be a conservative party?”
This is goes back to the change in the law under the Mulroney government. It continues:
They are astounded that this could happen... “Unfortunately, even though there was some solid pro-family MPs in that party, the liberal-types in the PC Party and in Parliament won the day”...
Police officers who have to deal with the fall-out from changes in the law in a front-line capacity have seen the tragic effects of a lowered age of consent. As they encounter situations of young teen girls and older men, they have been faced with the reality there is nothing they can do to protect these vulnerable young citizens. As a result of countless such incidents, in the last few years the provincial attorneys-general of every province in Canada have demanded that the Justice Minister raise the age of consent. In addition, the Canadian Police Association has also endorsed a motion asking for the age to be raised.
Yesterday in the House the Liberals tried to insinuate that our opposition motion would have the effect of lowering the age of consent. How can members of parliament say such a contrivance and sleep at night when what is important is protecting children not protecting the government from its inaction since 1993?
Our motion calls for raising the age of consent set out in section 150.1 of the criminal code. The Liberal member was talking about section 153 of the code which deals with sexual exploitation of young persons. We would not change section 153, the Liberals know it and they are only trying to confuse others on a technicality that does not hold water.
I have spoken at length about the 8,681 petitions from the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values asking for the age of consent to be raised. I will take a moment to say that the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values existed before the Canadian Alliance as a political party. Just to make it clear, there is no relationship there. However we do share some of our beliefs, obviously.
At this point in time I would like to ask the House for unanimous consent to table the 8,681 letters that I have with me today. This is just a sampling from individual members of the community in Vancouver, self-described as 80% of the membership is Canadian-Chinese.