Consent and the law

How the law defines consent

Section 273.1 of the Criminal Code says consent means the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question. In a criminal case, the complainant is the person who says they were assaulted.

The same section says consent must be present at the time the sexual activity takes place. Agreeing earlier, or having agreed in the past, doesn't count.

When there is no consent

Under section 273.1(2), there is no consent if:

• the agreement is expressed by someone other than the complainant
• the complainant is unconscious
• the complainant is incapable of consenting for any other reason
• the accused gets the complainant to take part by abusing a position of trust, power or authority
• the complainant expresses, by words or conduct, a lack of agreement to take part
• the complainant agreed, then expresses, by words or conduct, a lack of agreement to continue

That list isn't complete. The law says it doesn't limit the other situations in which there is no consent.

Section 265(3) adds that there is no consent when someone submits or doesn't resist because of force against them or someone else, threats or fear of force, fraud, or the exercise of authority.

The duty to take reasonable steps

People accused of sexual assault sometimes say they honestly believed the other person agreed. Section 273.2 sets strict limits on that defence. Believing in consent is not a defence if:

• the belief came from the accused's own drinking or drug use, or from recklessness or wilful blindness
• the belief rests on a situation in which the law says there is no consent
• the accused didn't take reasonable steps, in the circumstances they knew of at the time, to make sure the complainant was consenting
• there's no evidence that the complainant's agreement was expressed in words or actively shown by conduct

In 2019, in R v Barton, the Supreme Court said an accused must believe that consent was communicated, and that silence or passivity can't be treated as a yes. In short, the law expects people to check, and to rely on a yes that was actually given, not on assumptions.

The age of consent

The age of consent to sexual activity in Canada is 16. Younger people can't legally consent, except in the narrow situations below.

These rules apply to all sexual activity, whatever the genders of the people involved. A separate, higher age that once applied to anal intercourse was repealed in 2019.

Paying for sexual services from anyone under 18 is a crime, and so is sharing a sexual image of anyone under 18, whatever the age of consent.

What the Supreme Court has said

Decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada explain how the consent law works in practice. These are the landmarks.

1. 1999
   R v Ewanchuk

   There is no defence of implied consent in Canadian law. Believing that silence, passivity or ambiguous behaviour means yes is a mistake about the law, not a defence.

2. 2011
   R v J.A.

   Consent requires a conscious mind throughout the activity. A person can't consent in advance to sexual activity that happens while they're unconscious.

3. 2014
   R v Hutchinson

   Secretly sabotaging a condom can be fraud that cancels consent, when the deception exposes the person to a significant risk of serious bodily harm, such as an increased risk of a pregnancy they had chosen to avoid.

4. 2019
   R v Barton

   An accused must believe that consent was communicated, and must take reasonable steps. Silence or passivity can't be read as a yes.

5. 2021
   R v G.F.

   To be capable of consenting, a person must understand the physical act, that it's sexual, who their partner is, and that they can refuse.

6. 2022
   R v Kirkpatrick

   When someone makes condom use a condition of their consent, sex without a condom is sex without consent.

Intimate images and deepfakes

Since 2015, section 162.1 of the Criminal Code has made it a crime to share an intimate image of someone knowing they didn't consent, or being reckless about whether they did.

The Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16) strengthened that law on July 18, 2026:

• An intimate image now includes a fake or AI-generated image that shows an identifiable person nude, nearly nude, exposing their sexual organs or engaged in explicit sexual activity, if it's likely to be mistaken for a real recording of them.
• Threatening to share an intimate image is now a crime in itself.
• The maximum sentence on indictment rose to 10 years, or 14 years if the accused knew or ought to have known that the image was made during, or just after, an aggravated sexual assault on the person shown.

Several provinces also have civil laws that can help get images taken down and award compensation. The laws in British Columbia, Manitoba and New Brunswick explicitly cover altered or fake images, and Nova Scotia passed a similar change in September 2026.

If the person in the image is under 18, sharing it is also an offence involving child sexual abuse and exploitation material (formerly called child pornography) under the Criminal Code. NeedHelpNow.ca helps young people get images removed, and Cybertip.ca takes reports.

Relationships, marriage and coercive control

A spouse can be charged with sexually assaulting their partner. Canada removed the old spousal exemption in 1983, and section 278 of the Criminal Code says so plainly.

The Protecting Victims Act also creates a new crime of coercive or controlling conduct toward an intimate partner. It isn't in force yet: it takes effect on June 18, 2028, or sooner if the government sets an earlier date.

Reporting and time limits

There's no time limit for reporting a sexual assault to police. Even if it happened years ago, you can still report it.

Sexual assault can be prosecuted as an indictable offence, which has no time limit. A 12-month limit applies only when the Crown chooses to proceed by summary conviction, the route used for less serious cases.

After an investigation, police (or, in some provinces, Crown prosecutors) decide whether to lay charges. Once charges are laid, the Crown prosecutor decides whether the case goes ahead. The person who was assaulted is a witness rather than a party to the case, but has rights to information, protection and participation under the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.

Civil lawsuits are separate from criminal charges. Several provinces have removed the time limit for suing over sexual assault. A lawyer or legal clinic can explain the rules where you live.

The offences, in brief

• Sexual assault (section 271): any sexual touching without consent, from unwanted grabbing or kissing to rape.
• Sexual assault with a weapon, threats to a third party or causing bodily harm (section 272).
• Aggravated sexual assault (section 273): when the person is wounded, maimed or disfigured, or their life is endangered.