Assault: Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is administered under the assault regime in our Criminal Code. It’s important actually to identify what a regular assault is in order to better understand what a sexual assault is. Assault as defined by our Criminal Code is any unconsented or attempted application of unconsented force upon another individual. What separates sexual assault, which is identified in Section

271 of the Criminal Code, from regular assault in Section 266 of the Criminal Code, is that the application, or attempted application, of unconsented force in a sexual assault is deemed to be sexual or carnal in its nature. This means that the assault can occur against an area of the body which is considered to be sexualized or that the assault could have occurred in a manner generally that is considered sexualized regardless of where the touching took place.