Canadian Age of Consent

I was surprised to learn, when I was over in Canada, that the age of consent there is only 14. It has been that since 1890!

The Government has just introduced a bill to raise the age to 16, but to have a “close age” exemption for 14 and 15 year olds if their partners are no more than five years older than them. So a 14 year old and 19 year old would be legal but a 15 year old and a 25 year old would not be.

Seems a pretty sensible change to me.

Incidentially the age iof consent is just 13 in Spain and Japan.