What Is Sexual Assault Under Canadian Law?

Sexual assault is one of the most misunderstood offences in the Criminal Code. It is not a separate kind of act with its own definition — it is an assault, committed in circumstances that are sexual in nature, and that framing explains most of what surprises people about it.

How does the law define sexual assault?

There is no standalone definition of the act. Section 265(2) provides that the general definition of assault applies to all forms of assault, including sexual assault. So the starting point is section 265(1): intentionally applying force to another person without their consent, or threatening to do so with the apparent present ability to carry it out.

What makes an assault sexual is assessed objectively, looking at the whole of the circumstances — the part of the body touched, the nature of the contact, the situation in which it occurred, any words or gestures accompanying it, and whether there were threats or force.

Our explainer on sexual assault under section 271 sets out the provision and the consent rules in detail.

What five things do people commonly get wrong?

• It does not depend on a specific body part. The offence turns on whether the sexual integrity of the complainant was violated, not on a list of anatomy.
• A spouse can be charged. Marriage or a relationship is not a defence, and has not been for decades.
• A complainant can be any gender, and so can an accused.
• No injury is required. Assault does not require harm, and neither does sexual assault.
• Silence is not consent. Section 273.2 removes the defence of belief in consent where there is no evidence that agreement was affirmatively expressed by words or actively expressed by conduct.

What must the Crown prove?

• That the accused intentionally applied force, or threatened to;
• that the complainant did not consent;
• that the circumstances were sexual in nature, assessed objectively;
• that the accused knew the complainant was not consenting, or was reckless or wilfully blind about it.

Section 273.1 defines consent as the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question, and requires it to be present at the time. Consent cannot be given in advance for a period of unconsciousness, and it can be withdrawn at any point.

What is the punishment for sexual assault?

Section 271 makes it a hybrid offence. The Crown elects how to proceed, and that election sets the range.

• On indictment — up to 10 years. Where the complainant is under 16, up to 14 years with a mandatory minimum of one year.
• On summary conviction — up to two years less a day. Where the complainant is under 16, the same maximum with a mandatory minimum of six months.

Older material, including material still circulating online, gives the summary maximum as 18 months. That figure is out of date. The general summary conviction maximum was raised in 2019, and section 271 was further amended in 2026.

What else follows a conviction?

Usually more than the sentence. A conviction commonly brings a DNA order, a weapons prohibition, and an order under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act. Registration is mandatory in defined categories and presumptive otherwise, with a statutory route to seek an exemption — it is no longer automatic in every case, which is a point worth raising early rather than after sentencing.

What should you do if you have been charged?

Say nothing to police beyond asking for a lawyer. These cases frequently rest on the accounts of two people and on what was said afterwards, which makes an early statement unusually damaging. Our page on sexual assault charges explains how the defence is built.