Age of consent, gun changes priorities for justice minister

The Conservative government will quickly move to raise the age of consent for sexual activity and introduce measures to crack down on gun violence, the new justice minister said on Tuesday.

Vic Toews spoke briefly as he headed out of a Tory caucus meeting, a day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet were sworn in.

Toews, a former Manitoba attorney general, said he prefers working on an issue-by-issue basis.

"We may not have an omnibus bill, but rather bringing individual issues in one bill at a time so that we could move them quicker that way," he said.

A key Conservative priority is to raise the age of protection from 14 to 16, with a "close in age" exemption, said Toews, adding: "We don't want to criminalize conduct between youths."

The change would mean criminal charges for adults who have sex with girls or boys aged 14 or 15. At the moment, having sex with a 14-year-old is legal in Canada, in contrast with jurisdictions such as Texas, where the age of consent is 17.

• FROM MARCH 8, 2005: Web luring case raises age-of-consent issue

The minority government expects to find common ground with other parties on ways to tackle gun violence, said Toews.

"There was remarkable consensus among many of the parties on the issue of gun violence, particularly mandatory minimum prison sentences," he said.

The NDP call for four-year minimums is a "Conservative light" version of the Tory call for five-year minimums, said Toews.

Public hearings for top court?

On another issue, Toews stood by his comments on Monday about the appointment of Supreme Court judges.

Following the first cabinet meeting, Toews said he would like to hold public hearings on the qualifications of the next top-court judge. There is currently one vacancy.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin has warned that U.S.-style questioning of court nominees could politicize the process.

But on Tuesday, Toews said public hearings would make the process more transparent and give parliamentarians the opportunity to "demonstrate their maturity.

"It falls on the shoulders of parliamentarians to demonstrate restraint and appropriate questioning. If that fails, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves."

Another priority will be eliminating the gun registry, which his party has vehemently opposed.

"The long-gun registry, of course, has been a colossal waste of money, with no demonstrable effect on gun crime. We want to bring in laws that target criminals, rather than targeting duck hunters and farmers, as the gun registry does," Toews said in a CBC interview Tuesday morning.

Toews said the money saved by scrapping the registry would be better used on front-line policing and offering services to victims of crime.