Scenario
Andrew just turned 20 years old and graduated from high school this
week. This Saturday he is going to prom
with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Maria, who is in grade 9. Andrew and Maria
have been dating for about six months and Maria has decided that she would like
to lose her virginity to Andrew at prom.
On prom night, Andrew’s parents are not home. Andrew grabs several of
the beers from the fridge and puts them in his backpack.
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Once he arrives at prom, Andrew gives several of the beers to his
friends to drink. These friends are all
under age 19. His girlfriend Maria also grabs a beer from Andrew’s backpack and
mixes it with her pop. She drinks the alcoholic beverage without the teachers
noticing.
Andrew and Maria are having fun at prom and dancing to the music. They
decide to sneak into the washroom to have sex. Luckily no teachers come into the washroom but a couple of students walk in and then run out in embarrassment.
Will Andrew and Maria face any legal repercussions from their actions on
prom night?
LEGAL INFORMATION:
Sexual Activity and the Age of Consent
The age of consent refers to the age at which a young
person can legally consent to sexual activity. All sexual activity without
consent, regardless of age, is a criminal offence.
Whether to consent to sex is always your
decision. The Canadian law requires that all people
participating in sexual activity must give their own consent: you decide
whether you want to be involved in any kind of sexual activity, from kissing
and touching to intercourse.
However, the law sets some limits on that, so that it is illegal if you are below a certain age to be sexually involved with certain other people. This means that if you are too young to consent to sex with a particular person, that older person could be charged with a criminal offence.
However, the law sets some limits on that, so that it is illegal if you are below a certain age to be sexually involved with certain other people. This means that if you are too young to consent to sex with a particular person, that older person could be charged with a criminal offence.
The
general age of consent for sexual activity in Canada
A similar exception exists for 12 and 13 year-olds: they can consent to sexual activity with a partner who is less than two years older than them.
In all of these cases,
however, if you are under 18, you cannot legally consent to sex with someone who is in a position of trust or authority over you (like your teacher, swim coach, Pastor). That
person could be charged with a criminal offence.
In
this prom scenario, because Maria is only 14 and Andrew is
six years older than her, any sexual activity between them is illegal. This
includes kissing and sexual touching. Andrew could face serious punishments for
this as a regular sexual assault (see Criminal Code section 271) or the
child-specific criminal charge of sexual interference or invitation to sexual touching (see Criminal Code section151 and 152).
For more info on the legal age of consent for sexual
activity, check out JFCY’s YouTube video here, and the Government ofCanada’s website on this issue.
Underage consumption of alcohol
Maria is too young to legally consume alcohol. According to ss.30(8) of the Liquor Licence Act, it is illegal for a person under the age of
19 to have, consume, attempt to purchase or otherwise obtain alcohol. The only
exception to this prohibition is where parents provide alcohol to their own children,
at home with parental supervision.
Andrew is also in violation of the Liquor
Licence Act for knowingly providing his underage friends with alcohol.
Both Maria and
Andrew may be charged under the Liquor
Licence Act and be made to appear in Provincial Offences Court.
Sex on school property
Depending on the school’s Code of Conduct, the school principal may
decide to sanction Maria for illegally consuming alcohol and having sex on
school property. It is possible that she could be suspended. (To read more
about suspension, check out JFCY’s legal info pamphlet.
Since Andrew has already graduated, the school can't suspend him but they could make a report to
the police and refuse to let him back onto the school property in the future.
This scenario was written by PLE Team volunteer Tracy Chen, a joint LLB/MBA student at York/Osgoode. The legal info was written by JFCY summer law student Robin McNamara (UofT) and reviewed by a JFCY lawyer.
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