• Children are the most vulnerable group in society and are in need of protection from those who would prey on them.
• Our children are this nation's greatest natural resource and deserve to be protected and given the best opportunity to reach their full potential as our future stewards and leaders.
• Law enforcement authorities report a growth of people coming from other countries to contact young people in Canada because of the low age of consent, and they travel here for sexual purposes - "Canada has already established a reputation, internationally, as an attractive destination for pedophiles." (Media, RCMP)
• The growth of the Internet has significantly increased the availability of pornography and facilitates attempts by pedophiles to find new victims.
• The current low age of consent encourages societal acceptance of early sexual behaviour and also encourages sexual deviants to seek younger and younger sex partners (in sexual abuse investigations, 86% of teenagers victimized were girls, while 56% were girls in the 8 - 11 age group - University of Toronto, 1994).
• The normalization of adult-child sex is corrupting a whole generation of young people, and studies show that sexually-abused children are much more likely to become promiscuous and engage in deviant practices themselves.
• Statistics Canada 1997 found more than half of young teen mothers were made pregnant by men in their twenties or older.
• One in eight girls and one in twenty-three boys suffer sexual abuse (study by researchers at McMaster University and the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto, 1997).
• The same study found the long-term effects of both physical and sexual abuse can be devastating and have 3 main areas of impairment - physical, psychological harm and social impairment.
• Early sexual activity leads to deep emotional and mental health problems, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), cervical cancer, teen pregnancies, a greater tendency to drop out of school and criminal behaviour.
• Adults use the present age of consent law to justify their actions, and the current age of consent law protects those involved in the sex trade industry - the johns, the pimps, the child pornography, the consumer and those who produce sexually explicit material for their own use, and it in no way protects children from adults that use and abuse children.
• Adult judges and lawyers use the present age of consent laws to criminalize the child and not the adult.
• The age of 18 applies to: the child pornography laws, the child abuse laws, the U.N. definition of a child, the sex tourism laws, the child prostitution laws, the child welfare laws.
• Adults are in a position of power and authority over children and have the responsibility to nurture, respect, and protect children and ensure the right of children to be free from sexual exploitation.

Be it resolved that:

• We, the ______________, implore the Government of Canada to act immediately to amend the Age of Consent law in Canada's Criminal Code. We ask that the Justice Minister act to protect children by increasing the age of consent from 14 to 18 years old. Most children are still trying to get an education, still living under parental protection and are often not mature enough to fend off sexual exploitation and solicitation by adults until age 18. Protecting vulnerable children is a duty and responsibility of governments.
• _____________ supports the call by Canada Family Action Coalition, Real Women, Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation, Canadian Police Association and the Provincial Attorneys General, and citizens of Canada. The law must protect children, not pedophiles and predators.
• We, the _____________, call upon the Government of Canada to amend the Criminal Code to eliminate the two exceptions to the offences of possession of child pornography, created by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Sharpe.