Fifty-five per cent of Canadians do not understand the legal definition of sexual consent, suggests a recent survey conducted by Maru Public Opinion and commissioned by the Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF).
According to Canada’s Criminal Code, consent is the voluntary and ongoing agreement to engage in sexual activity, which can be withdrawn at any time.
Out of a random selection of 1,511 Canadian adults who were surveyed on Oct. 18 and 19, less than half (45 per cent) of the respondents demonstrated an understanding of the consensual sexual activity that meets the legal threshold.
Those who successfully met this threshold were almost equally women and men under the age of 54. This age group also demonstrated a better understanding of sexual consent than their older counterparts above the age of 55, the survey found.
“Stories about sexual violence are covered in the news all the time,” Paulette Senior, president and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation, said in a news release on Tuesday.
“While more people seem to be aware of what consent is, it’s alarming that so many still don’t understand. It’s a sign that Canada desperately needs to invest in consent education and effective abuse prevention measures relevant to all age groups.”
Although the percentage of Canadians who are aware of consent has increased since the survey was first conducted in 2015, it still represents less than half of the population.
Awareness also varied according to province, the survey found. Those who had an understanding of consent are more likely to reside in Alberta (49 per cent) and British Columbia (48 per cent), followed by those living in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario (47 per cent each), Atlantic Canada (42 per cent), and Québec (39 per cent).
Last year, the definition of consent under sexual assault law came under scrutiny when a B.C. man was charged with sexual assault after assuring a woman that he would wear a condom.
In July, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that sex with a condom is a different physical act than sex without one, and that the use of a condom can be a condition of consent under sexual assault law.
Canada’s top court said that that saying yes to sex with the condition that a condom is used is not the same as saying yes to sex without conditions. In other words, consent needs to be given again, if the use of a condom was not previously agreed upon.
According to Statistics Canada data published in 2019, 4.7 million women – or 30 per cent of all women aged 15 and older – have experienced sexual assault that did not involve an intimate partner.
The statistics suggest that some women and people of colour, particularly Indigenous women, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, women with disabilities, and younger women are more likely to experience sexual assault.
This current survey demonstrates that 42 per cent of Canadians know a woman who has been sexually assaulted.
With files from Kendra Mangione
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