Sex and Booze on Prom Night: Legal Issues

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.

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. 

The general age of consent for sexual activity in Canada is 16 years. This means that if you are 16 or older, you can consent to sex with anyone older than you.

The Criminal Code provides "close in age" or "peer group" exceptions whereby a 14 or 15 year old can consent to sexual activity with a partner as long as the partner is less than five years older and there is no relationship of trust, authority or dependency or any other exploitation of the young person. 


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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Photo sources: 

Dress - http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/style/sns-prom-bad-dresses-pictures,0,3304913.photogallery

People drinking: http://www.bcmj.org/blog/raise-glass-new-canadian-alcohol-guidelines-take-break-tomorrow

Pot: What is the law?

Scenario:

Jeremy, 17, and his friends are excited to go to a big house party. Jeremy’s parents have even lent Jeremy their car for the evening on the condition that he not consume any drugs or alcohol. Along the way to the party, Jeremy stops to pick up his friend Jonathan. As Jonathan approaches the car, he pulls out a few small bags of weed and says to Jeremy “we are going to get sooo stoned tonight!” Jeremy, usually a good boy, decides to take a  small bag and put it in his pocket.  He doesn't plan on smoking it but doesn't want to look like a loser in front of his friends. Jeremy lets Jonathan smoke some weed en route to the party.

The two boys are stopped by the police for driving with a broken taillight. When the police officer approaches the car, she smells burnt marijuana and demands the boys exit the car. After a “pat down” search of Jonathan’s clothes, the officer discovers the bag of weed in one of Jonathan’s pockets.

QUESTION:

Can Jeremy be found guilty of possession even though he did not intend to use the drugs? Did the officer have the right to search inside Jeremy and Jonathan’s pockets?

Answer: Jeremy may be found guilty of possession even without the intention of using the weed. He had the drugs in his pocket and thus they were in his possession. (See s. 4(3)(b) of the Criminal Code.) 

Answer: the legitimacy of the search of Jonathan’s pocket depends on whether or not the officer had “reasonable grounds” to suspect Jonathan was committing an offence. (See s.495 of the Criminal Code.) Odour may form the basis of a reasonable suspicion. (To read a court case about this click here.)

MORE ON MARIJUANA AND THE LAW

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in Canada. Over 10 million Canadians are estimated to have used marijuana at least once in their lives. Although some advocacy groups continue to push for its decriminalization, marijuana and its derivatives remain illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA).

There are legal consequences of possessing and distributing marijuana. Below is as a description of the charges, and examples of punishable activity, as well as some info on your rights during police searches.

CHARGE: Possession of marijuana

In the CDSA the definition of drug possession is borrowed from section 4(3) of the Criminal Code of Canada.   “Possess” means to have the drug on your person, but you may also be charged with possession if someone else is holding the drug for you or if you have it stashed someplace for future use. 

CHARGE: Trafficking of marijuana

The definition of “trafficking” under the CDSA is very broad. To traffic marijuana is “to sell, administer, give, transfer, transport, send or deliver the substance...” or to sell an authorization to purchase marijuana.  Selling does not require payment in exchange for the drug. Any kind of transporting/delivering, offer of sale and distribution –even if not in exchange for anything –can fall under trafficking. Consider a situation where a group of friends get together and smoke Marijuana that one person “picked up”. The individual who shared the drug has 'trafficked' regardless whether he asked his friends to pay or not.

You need not actually commit the crime of trafficking in order to be punished for more than mere possession. Possession for the purposes of trafficking is often punished just as heavily as actual trafficking.

 

Marijuana-related searches

Everyone has a right not to be “unreasonably” searched, but a police officer may search you with or without a warrant, provided there are reasonable grounds to believe you are in possession of a controlled substance. Where a police officer conducts a search without a warrant, s/he must justify the search afterwards in order to use the evidence obtained. 

There must be some factual basis for suspicion in order to justify the search. This might be a tip from an informant or something the police observed. Your reputation and criminal record are also admissible pieces of information the police may use to establish reasonable suspicion.

You can legally refuse consent to be searched, regardless to how many requests the police officers make to search you or enter your home or vehicle. However, the police may refuse to allow you entry into a restricted area unless you consent to a search.

Giving them voluntary consent makes police searches automatically legal.

In public, police can request you to stop and engage you in a conversation . Police can legally use false pretenses (lie), use intimidation techniques, and steadily attempt to persuade you into giving them permission for a search. But until they formally arrest you, you have a right to refuse consent for a search and walk away from them. It helps to remain respectful, to identify yourself, and avoid making quick movements (especially towards the pockets!). Avoiding having Marijuana in public, of course, helps.

If an arrest is made, remember that you have the right to remain silent and insist to speak with a lawyer.

For more info on your rights during a police stop or search, check out JFCY’s resources here: http://www.jfcy.org/ycj-police.html

This post was written by JFCY PLE Team Volunteer Shawn Malik and JFCY summer law student Robin McNamara.  Legal info was reviewed by JFCY.

Photo Sources:

http://www.canada.com/health/4610785.bin?size=620x400

http://tobaccoblog.blogetery.com/files/2011/11/possession-of-marijuana.jpg