Canada's Age of Consent Law

March 13, 2000

ACT Statement On the Legal Age of Consent To Sexual Activity

The AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT), a community-based, non-profit organization, provides health promotion, support, education and advocacy for people living with HIV/AIDS and those affected by HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1983 by a small group of dedicated activists, ACT has grown to become one of North America’s largest and most respected AIDS service organizations. One of our most important commitments is to help prevent the spread of AIDS, and a major part of our work is aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS among youth.

It is our view that effective HIV/AIDS prevention must be based on empowering people, including young people. HIV infection can be passed on by means of unsafe sexual activities and by unsafe injection of drugs. That is why it is important to give young people the information and support they need to make safe choices in private and intimate situations where the law may not offer much protection – or where it forbids the activity.

ACT supports Age of Consent legislation in principle. We believe it is important provide educational and other support to young people who have not reached that age, so as to help empower them to make decisions later on.
ACT believes that the current Age of Consent, fourteen, should not be changed unless it can be shown that such a change will NOT interfere with or undermine an effective HIV/AIDS prevention strategy that is based on empowering young people to make informed decisions for themselves.

We further believe that the Age of Consent should be the same for all sexual activity, including anal sex. The current situation, where fourteen is the Age of Consent for most sexual activity, but eighteen is the Age of Consent for anal sex, is not based on any sound reasoning. It discriminates against many young people – particularly gay males but not only them – who should have the right to decide for themselves whether to engage in this practice.

Here are some of the issues ACT believes must be resolved before the Age of Consent is raised:

Marginalized youth
    • Will raising the Age of Consent interfere with efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among marginalized youth, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth, youth of color, street-involved youth and youth involved in the sex-trade?
    • Will such a change make it more difficult for HIV/AIDS prevention information and support to reach young people who are already facing barriers that increase their risk of HIV infection?
    • Will raising the Age of Consent marginalize these young people further, pushing them “underground” and away from services that would help them avoid HIV infection?

Access to Health Services
    • Will raising the Age of Consent interfere with young people’s access to appropriate and ethical health care services including HIV and sexually transmitted infections testing and treatment, birth control, abortion services, emergency contraception and safer sex materials including condoms, female condoms, spermicides and dental dams?
    • Will raising the Age of Consent induce more young people to fear to report sexual diseases or other concerns?
    • Will young people’s right to confidentiality be compromised, or will their perception of such a danger keep them from accessing needed sexual health services?

Sexual Health Education
    • Will raising the Age of Consent motivate school boards and public health departments to change sexual health curricula or other educational outreach so as to make HIV/AIDS prevention information less available to young people in school?
    • Will opportunities to provide education on HIV/AIDS prevention be lost because none of the young people attending school have reached the Age of Consent?
    • Will there be increased public pressure to reduce or eliminate sexual health and AIDS prevention education in the schools?

ACT believes that unless the appropriate research is done, and convincing data gathered, that shows that the answers to the above questions is NO, then raising the Age of Consent may increase the risk that HIV infection will spread more widely among Canadian young people. Therefore ACT is opposed to raising the Age of Consent to sexual activity pending the completion and evaluation of research into these issues.