Why I don’t agree with the youth court systems and laws in Canada (Youth Criminal Justice Act) - specifically against sexual violence.

When I was 16 I went on a date gone wrong. Fast forward one year and I heard about other girls coming forward about this one person. It raised a lot of suspicions, memories and confusion for myself. Soon after all the accusations started to arise, the police contacted me. I was a fresh 17 year old. After asking the police many questions, and confirming that my family would NEVER have to know about anything that happened, I went in and gave a statement after the police kindly asked me to.

(Possible trigger warning - sexual assault)

Fast forward 2 years to November of 2022, the guy plead guilty a week before the scheduled trial date. It was a long two years, and I learnt a lot.

But, let me get something straight. So you’re telling me the age of consent in Canada is 16, but if someone commits a sexual violent crime at age 16, 17 or 18 they get tried as a youth and “babied”? By having the age of consent be 16, doesn’t this show that the law believes children and youth by the age of 16 clearly understand the difference between right and wrong, and that they’re able to FULLY understand a complex idea like ‘consent’? The laws in Canada TRULY believe that youth by the age of 16 are capable of making their own decisions, yet when someone who is 16,17 or 18 and CHOOSE to inflict sexual violence onto another human being they get “babied” so that they can “properly rehabilitate and reintegrate back into society”.

I think I speak for all the victims out there when I say SOCIETY DOESN’T WANT THEM!

If someone, especially a youth, has these tendencies to impose sexual violence onto others, how and why exactly do we want to help them “reintegrate” into society? Why are they so deserving of another chance when they are old enough to fully comprehend their actions and consequences from the time of committing them? Shouldn’t we be paying extra attention to them? These are youth who already have their brains clearly permanently miss-wired. Shouldn’t we be MAKING SURE they completely and thoroughly understand what was wrong with their actions? Shouldn’t we be showing them that there are real consequences to their actions in this world, and what those consequences look like? Why should someone who is 20 go to jail for the same rape charge that a 17 year old doesn’t have to go to jail for? How much more developed is the human brain between these ages?

Like I said earlier, the law clearly acknowledges that youth 16 AND OVER are capable of making their own decisions. So why are we taking the decisions to assault another human being so lightly?! Why are the exact same decisions that these youth are making taken so lightly compared to the person just a few measly years older than them? Why is the same sexual assault charge considered much lighter because someone is considered a youth? But, isn’t a youth that is 16 and over considered someone who is FULLY capable of making their own decisions? The SAME youth who supposedly understands complex ideas such as consent. So, shouldn’t they be able to comprehend how serious their sexual assault charge is? Why go light on them?

How do we as a society, as lawyers, as psychologists confirm that these sexual assault tendencies just vanish from an assaulter’s minds? Who are we to assume that they will ever even vanish or go away? Hundreds of times throughout my entire court process over the last two years I was reminded how “easy” the judge and sentences will be all because it's going through a youth court system - even though they were 17 at the time of committing this crime, and that there is only so much they (the courts) can do. If we have a CHILD who is ALREADY committing such inhumane crimes shouldn't this mean we take it MORE seriously? Don’t these “kids” need to know more than anyone how wrong their actions truly were? Maybe they don’t deserve jail with all the big guys, but they certainly don’t deserve to be walking around immediately after thinking they got away for the one fact that they get to walk away from the court house.

Some of the harshest punishments you can get as a youth are a probation officer, strict curfew, etc. But how many hours a day are these assaulters still alone with the damaging temptations still in their brain? Who’s to say these people are not messaging people, exploiting people online, bullying others, assaulting step or half siblings, assaulting cousins all in their OWN homes.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it is only my situation. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way. But, the person I was taking to court has and had the BIGGEST ego to ever exist. For the first entire year this person went around school literally saying “stop the lies” and “don't believe the lies”. They even went so far to put “stop the cap” in their bio online. Who the fuck does that besides an egotistical person? So, while all of this was going on, the VERY SLOW court and law systems were determining how to move forward and how exactly they were gonna baby him, I was reminded hundreds and hundreds of times “don't get your hopes up. It’s not like on TV. He won't go to jail or anything. This is because the law believes in giving youth another chance. The courts will go much lighter on them so they can properly rehabilitate back into society”.

Again,

SOCIETY DOESN’T WANT THESE PEOPLE!

Look, I know people can make more mistakes when they are troubled youth, but this isn’t like stealing a candy bar or stealing your parent’s car because of the party you were tempted to sneak out to. This is different. These kinds of assaults are assaults that will be wired into human brains (especially males) because of our hormones. When we have troubled youth that can’t control their hormones and their horrifying tendencies, we shouldn’t let it slide this easily. We need MORE resources. More juvy. More punishments. What I truly mean, is we need more confirmation that this stuff won’t keep happening.

It’s like your kid loves candy. You tell your kid no more candy. No more cookies. Will they actually stop? If they love it so much and they know it’s accessible, won’t they always try to sneak in an extra cookie or candy bar before bed? Even grown adults with addictions can be the same way. And ya everyone is different and a candy bar is different than rape, but is rape really more socially acceptable than a candy bar? Exactly. Are other people going to get hurt or traumatized because your kid decided to sneak in an extra candy bar? Or is it just your kid that suffers? Is it more manageable and less severe? OF COURSE! Is rape? NO.

I had a family member hurt me when I was quite young. They were considered a youth at this time. I was never going to speak forward. I was never gonna say anything. It took me 16 years to even realize that something wrong had taken place. But, I realized, what happens if this individual has kids? What happens if this individual becomes an uncle? They were ALREADY “that family member”. You know, that family member that you feel weary of.

“That family member” that you make sure you're wearing extra clothing around. No shoulders, no stomachs, and nothing above the knees. If I didn't speak up, who will?

As a victim its my duty to make sure there are no more victims. This person is a grown ass person now. They continue to have messed up relationships with everyone around them. By having these tendencies as a child, it’s clear that the messed up part of his brain never just went away. He never learnt his lesson. Even by me coming forward and confronting him, is that enough? Would he actually have stopped doing messed up things if I came forward 14 years ago? From the eyes and the brain of an assaulter, at what point do I feel ready to stop assaulting people and taking advantage of them?

If we have children already exhibiting these behaviors doesn’t this show how deep-rooted these issues and tendencies actually are in their messed up little brains? Yes, there is a chance for youth to recover and not re-offend but there’s also a chance for some underlying psycho-ness to be easily quite overlooked.

When we look back to the court process I just went through, with the high ego person, aren’t they going to look at the situation and think they’re getting away with it if they’re able to keep walking around. This person specifically has a TON of victims. Many girls have come forward. Some aren’t ready. A lot are too scared. Some victims are my friends and are too traumatized to ever come forward. This person obviously is the only person who knows the total number of victims, and how many they were able to “get away” with. At what point will this all stop? If they are getting so much help, so many resources, so much easiness put onto them throughout this whole court process, what about it is gonna click in their head when they walk out those doors to finally just stop hurting people?

I was told “Don’t worry. It’s not so serious now, but if they ever re-offend, it’ll be taken VERY seriously. They definitely won't get away the next time”

But…. why….. Does…. There…. Have… to….be….a……next…..time…….?!?

So……..you agree then?? There's going to be a next time?!

UGH. If ONE more person tells me this about how “ohh the next time, the next time” I will quite literally lose my goddamn mind and never find it. Is one person coming forward not enough?

Well get this. In my court process against this one person, we had THREE victims. Me being one of them. We already had THREE coming forward and everyone within the law had the nerve to remind me “the next time” over, and over, and over again.

But who cares right?

Cause next time,

When someone else comes forward,

He won't get away.

Yeah.

Maybe next time,

right?