Mr. Speaker, the question raised by the hon. member essentially touches two elements of this debate. The first is about the age of consent. In my main speech I pointed out the different views that people have on the topic as well as the different reasons why some people would like to raise the age of consent and why other people would like it to remain as it is.
The Canadian government and some provinces brought the topic to the federal, provincial and territorial meeting. I said in my main speech that some officials are looking into it at this point in time and will report back to see if we can reach a consensus around that question.
As the member said, it is a complex issue. We want to deal with the matter quickly but we want to ensure that it will respect our society in terms of where we are compared to other nations. Other nations have ages of consent of 15 and 16. We must have an overview of the entire situation. That is why we are recommending on this side that we should proceed with a good consultation period.
The second point, which is important as well, is the question of defence based on artistic merit. The government is actively looking into the existing section of the criminal code as well as the defences contained in those sections. I firmly believe that if we want to ensure we provide Canadians with an effective tool we should ensure that the section of the criminal code will be declared valid. We must respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
My point is quite simple. If we were to start infringing upon some freedoms that exist within the charter we would have to justify it based on section 1 of the charter. We have the room to manoeuvre to ensure that we continue to improve the existing tools within the criminal code and see if we could add to them.