Canada's age of consent is currently only 16 according to Law C-46 150.1, with exceptions in the clause currently allowing for adults as old as 20 to be having intercourse with minors as young as 15 years old, and adults as old as 19 to be having intercourse with children as young as 14 years old.

In Canada, anyone under the age of 18 (or 19 in some provinces) is recognized as being a minor, yet somehow, our age of consent laws, last updated 39 years ago in 1985, still mark the legal age of consent as being 16-- Sex with a minor is very obviously statutory r*pe, and 16 year olds are defined as minors under our laws, meaning that statutory r*pe is currently still legal in this country.

The law claims that 16 or 17 year olds may not sleep with someone in a 'position of power or authority' such a teacher or coach, but outside of those vague definitions there are no restrictions. A 40 year old would very clearly be more mature and have much more power in a relationship than any 16 year old would, yet somehow, due to these ill defined laws, they would not be considered to 'have power or authority', and thus may be unable to be prosecuted, despite the obvious abuse of power that would be present in such a situation.

Finally, our close-in-age-exemptions, also known as 'Romeo and Juliet laws', are flawed at best, and dangerous at worst. Romeo and Juliet laws, named after the famous Shakespearean play, are put in place to prevent minors from being charged with statutory r*pe for having consensual sex with other minors. Obviously, these make sense to have-- A 15 year old sleeping with a 15 year old should not be charged with statutory r*pe-- However, as these laws are now, the gaps in age are far too large, and these laws must be amended and changed.

14-15 year olds under our laws are currently allowed to sleep with anyone less than five years older than them, which leads to 18 year olds taking advantage of 14 year olds, and 19 year olds taking advantage of 15 year olds. However, as if that weren't bad enough already, since months also factor into this law, if a 15 year old has an August birthday while a 20 year old has a July birthday, then it will in fact be legal for that 20 year old to have sex with that 15 year old, since they are still technically less than five years older than them-- And the same goes for 14 year olds and 19 year olds. This is obviously way too large of a gap, and must be rectified.

Instead of allowing for minors to consent to sexual activities with other minors, the way the laws are written in our country currently allow for minors to have 'sex' with (be statutorily r*ped by) legal adults in ways that protect said adults from being prosecuted for these actions. 

These laws need to be changed. I've seen firsthand the effects of grooming on my peers, family friends, and vulnerable kids in foster care, wherein they'll have been easily impressed or groomed by some older adult, and then will live to regret what happened later, but will have no way to take legal action after finally realizing what happened was unacceptable. 

Of course, if these laws are changed, there must be something that they will have to be changed to. First of all, I would like to propose that we raise the federal age of consent to 18. Second of all, I would like to propose a maximum 2 year gap for every age range for those below the age of 18 and above the age of 14. For example, a 15 year old could date between the ages of 16 and 17. The reason for this is that 15 year olds often date people in their class, and due to the variance of birthdays, many of their peers will be 16 before they are. Following this logic, they may also turn 17 before the 15 year old in this situation would be turning 16, and it would not make sense to prosecute in this situation. This is similar to how Romeo and Juliet laws work in many countries, including Australia, the United States of America, and Finland.

Together, I believe we can raise the federal age of consent to 18, and ban statutory r*pe for good in this country. Together, we can make a better and safer world for children, wherein we do not have to worry about them being groomed by someone much older than them without the ability to get their perpetrator(s) arrested. Together, we can prioritize child safety and start appropriately prosecuting pedophiles.