This is the million-dollar question. What is rape? What isn’t rape? What counts as rape? It is important to acknowledge that laws about sexual assault vary from country to country. This post will only address Canadian law. We hope to offer some insight into how you can identify rape in your life. We will not be addressing sexual exploitation, such as nudes or revenge porn, in this post. This post will address two key elements: What is rape and what are the Canadian laws of rape?

Rape is a non-consensual sexual activity carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception (Rape definition & meaning). Rape occurs if one or more parties do not consent to a sexual act. Lack of consent could look manifest as someone outright saying “no” to a sexual act. It could also look like someone not saying yes. This includes unconsciousness, asleep, silence and stillness. Rape occurs if someone is under the influence and incapable of making rational decisions. If someone consented to a sexual act after being coerced, persuaded or convinced, that is rape. Consent is not valid if a person feels afraid to say no. This includes someone abusing a position of power over you (i.e. a boss will cut your hours at work unless you have sex with them) and physical/emotional/social threats of harm (i.e. someone will send out your nudes if you don’t have sex with them). Rape occurs if, at any point, consent was retracted before/during the sexual act. If someone consented to a sexual act previously but they decide to retract it this time and the act continues after they revoked the consent, anything that occurs afterwards is non-consensual.  Rape also occurs if a person is too young to consent. 

Rape can happen to anyone, by anyone. Rape has no gender, socioeconomic or marital status. Numbers can never be completely accurate but statistics can be a guide to the prevalence and circumstance of rape. It is important to note that of every 100 incidents of sexual assault only 6 are reported to the police (Sexual assault statistics in Canada). Young women aged 15-24 years are the main targets of rape with 71 incidents per 1,000 population. In over half (52%) of sexual assault incidents, the perpetrator was a friend, acquaintance, or neighbour of the victim (Government of Canada Justfacts).

There is no specific law in the Canadian Criminal Code defining rape. Rape falls under the umbrella of sexual assault. Sexual assault is defined as “an assault, within any one of the definitions of that concept in s. 265(1), which is committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such that the sexual integrity of the victim is violated.” There are three levels of sexual assault. Sexual assault level 1 (s. 271): An assault committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such that the sexual integrity of the victim is violated. Level 1 involves minor physical injuries or no injuries to the victim. Sexual assault level 2 (s. 272): Sexual assault with a weapon, threats, or causing bodily harm. Aggravated sexual assault (level 3): Sexual assault that results in wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering the life of the victim. Rape falls under all of these levels. 

It is important to note that just because a rapist was not convicted does not mean the rape did not happen. Rape is complex, exploitative, and hard to convict. If you or someone you know has been raped you are well within your rights to receive justice, counselling and medical attention. For more resources on rape, sexual assault services, and other consent related topics please visit the resources page at cardteams.com/resources