7 thoughts on “Canada raises the age of consent”

  1. Two things. One, parents need to educate their children to protect them from predators. The change in law may deter some older men from seeking younger woman — maybe. Two, when I was a teenager growing up in Ontario, jail bate was anyone under 18. So, I’m confused about over 100 years at age 14 now moving to 16.

  2. I don’t get that either…. but protection from predators is the parental training and the child’s native wit; you will need both!

  3. “The age of consent has been 14 yrs old for over a hundred years …” Loki, is this the way you remember it?

  4. I honestly don’t remember the issue ever coming up. The whole issue of consent gets really murky in so many different ways, if the young person is of low IQ, if alcohol is involved, there are lots of ways of coercion that don’t involve violence, etc., etc. At least now canada’s law is comparable to most other jurisdictions. The one good thing is that pedophiles are the lowest of the low in prison and tend to have a very bad time there.

  5. Debbie, when you were a teenager growing up in Ontario, jailbait was under 16. There also was no proximity in age ruling. It was called statutory rape if someone over the age of 16 was caught having sex with someone under the age of 16. However…one could marry without parental intervention at the age of 14.
    I think we have another example of poor journalism. Age of consent and rape laws are not the same thing. Somehow marriage is supposed to make it all ok.
    Or maybe I’m wrong. But that is how I remember it

  6. oh, changing chronological age requirements will NOT stop predation. It may result in a few more predators being prosecuted, but the problem will not go away because of a law. Young people reach puberty earlier on average than they did 100 years ago. There needs to be a law to stop puberty from occurring earlier, right?

  7. Loki, I think my parents lied to me then!! Maybe jail bait was 18 in the US? Yes, it is reassuring that pedophiles rank low in prison!

    Chipper, if we are trying to PREVENT our children from being preyed upon, laws won’t stop it. Maybe victims will get some sense of closure through the judicial system. Stop puberty? I guess we could start by mandating hormone-free meat!

    Defining a young person as a child (up to age 16) puts more cloat in the parents hands. Luckily Jenn went through phase II of puberty at age 13. For lack of better words, hormone crazy. I still had control. I just asked Jenn if she would like to go to the juvenile behaviour correction centre or work within the rules of the house which involved daily alcolhol tests, weekly full spectrum drug tests, curfews, acceptable behaviour rules, etc. Sounds easy, NO IT WAS HORRIFIC, but I did have a lot of help from Jim, a very effective Child Pychologist and a bang on family doctor. Most of the parents in affluent Kanata Lakes did not go to these lengths and most of Jenn’s friends ended up dropping out of high school and are leading marginal lives.

Leave a Reply