Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep disappointment with the Liberal government's failure to protect Canadian children by voting yesterday against two Conservative Party initiatives to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16.
Canada has one of the lowest age of sexual consent laws in the world. This fact has put our children at risk of exploitation from much older sexual predators. The Minister of Justice claims that children between the ages of 14 and 18 are already protected by the Criminal Code. However, anyone who understands how a criminal trial works knows that these provisions place the burden of the trial on the shoulders of the young victims making prosecution very difficult.
The decision by the Liberals to oppose raising the age of sexual consent is a matter for which the people of Canada will ultimately hold this government to account.