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Bill C-27

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	SUMMARY
	This enactment amends the Criminal Code in respect of certain offences relating to violence against women and children.
	The enactment modifies existing provisions to facilitate the apprehension and prosecution of Canadians involved in sexual offences against children, whether those offences are committed in or outside Canada.
	It also creates an offence of aggravated procuring, with a minimum sentence of five years' imprisonment, for a person living on the avails of prostitution in relation to a person under the age of eighteen, and who uses violence against the person under that age and assists that person to carry on prostitution-related activities for profit.
	The enactment provides for an enhanced penalty where a person convicted of criminal harassment also violates a protective court order. It also provides that, irrespective of whether a murder was planned and deliberate, stalkers who ultimately kill their victims are liable for first degree murder when they intended to cause the person murdered to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.
	Although the current Criminal Code provisions, in particular those related to aggravated assault, apply to the practice of female genital mutilation, the enactment specifies that female genital mutilation is a ``maiming'' or ``wounding''. The enactment expressly provides that no consent to female genital mutilation is valid except where given for a surgical procedure performed by a person duly qualified by provincial law to practise medicine, for the benefit of the person or, in the case of an adult, where it does not result in bodily harm.
	Finally, the enactment extends the special provisions available in the Criminal Code to ease the testimonial burden of young complainants in respect of certain specified offences, to young witnesses testifying in those cases.