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This enactment amends the Criminal Code in respect of certain
offences relating to violence against women and children.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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