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By only a margin of only three Senate votes, Canada raised its age of consent from 14 to 16 on Feburary 28 - ending a two-year fight which pitted youth groups, gay activists, and public health advocates against law-and-order conservatives.

The age increase, part of a larger crime bill, expands the scope of consensual sexual relationships that face prosecution.

The new law strips 14- and 15-year-olds of the right to consent to sex -- except with other teenagers who are no more than five years older -- unless the partners are legally married. The law stipulates that persons 12 and 13 can consent to sex with persons up to only two years older. Even if they are peers, sex involving persons under 12 remains illegal.

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he youth-led Age of Consent Committee, a Toronto-based group formed in 2006, spearheaded opposition to the age change.

"Instead of criminalizing acts based on a partner's age, the legal system should examine whether the act was actually coerced," they declared, noting that an age of consent of 14 dates back to 1890, when it was raised from 12. "Raising the basic age of consent would still deter young people from accessing sexual health information, regardless of any 'peer group' provision."??

Egale, Canada's main GLBT rights group, also testified against the law change. "Egale believes very strongly that it is possible... even common... for 14 and 15 year olds to consent to sex, even with people over the age of 20," said then-executive director Kaj Hasselriis in testimony to Parliament in March 2007. "And when young people don't consent to sex, we have strong laws in place to protect them."

Anal sex stays 'special'

The age increase will not change Canada's unequal age-of-consent for anal sex, which stands at 18. The discrepancy -- assailed by gay and AIDS groups -- has been ruled unconstitutional by courts in Quebec and Ontario.??

When the crime measure came to a vote last November in the lower house of Canada's parliament, only one MP voted against the bill.

Openly-gay Bill Siksay was censured by the New Democratic Party for his principled oppositon to the crime bill, which also sets mandatory minimum sentences and expands the state's ability to incarcerate people past the ends of their prison terms.

But by the time the legislation reached the Parliament's upper house, the Senate, some legislators came around to Siksay's view.

"To ignore the fact that young persons between the age of 14 and 16 are sexually active is to put our head in the sand," says Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs.

"I knew what the chances were of this bill being defeated," wrote Nick Dodds, a teenager who testified to Parliament, in a letter to Ottawa's Capital Xtra (sister publication to The Guide). "But I also know that it passed in the Senate by only three votes, and that's pretty damn close."

"I'm proud of the fact that we got to voice our opinion during public hearings, and I'm proud of the people who were there with us," he said.