Is adultery a criminal offence in Canada? (2024)

Seventeen U.S. states have laws on the books against adultery, though only three states still consider it a felony — Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In Michigan, adultery is punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. In Oklahoma, it can land you five years in jail and a $500 fine. In Wisconsin, the maximum sentence is 3.5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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In the other 14 states, along with Puerto Rico, adultery is considered a misdemeanour. But what happens if someone convicted of adultery in the U.S. attempts to enter Canada?

This question was put to the test in an episode of Border Security: Canada’s Front Line that aired in 2013.

A clip from the show, which has recently gained traction on social media, shows a man from New York state being referred to secondary inspection after he was flagged in the Canada Border Services Agency system. Though the man said the charge was “indecent assault,” further digging by border officials found that he had been charged with adultery while in the U.S. Army.

He said he paid no fines and received no jail time. After a few hours at the border, the man was let through.

“Adultery isn’t a crime in Canada,” a border agent said. “So he’s admissible.”

The history of adultery in Canada stretches back to the pre-Confederation era when both the French and British treated it as a significant moral and legal issue, particularly for women. Following the formation of Canada, adultery still had legal implications, specifically for divorce proceedings, which were rare at the time.

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Adultery was one of the few grounds on which a divorce could be granted, and it was often necessary to prove it in court. Today, while not considered a criminal act in Canada, adultery can still have legal implications in divorces, though generally, it does not impact the division of property or spousal support.

It’s a different story in the U.S., even as several states have moved to decriminalize adultery in recent years, including Utah (2019), Idaho (2022) and Minnesota (2023). The laws on the books, ranging from fines to jail time, are rarely enforced.

In other parts of the world, including Asia, Africa and the Middle East, adultery remains a crime and, in some cases, is punishable by death.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, adultery charges can lead to the death penalty under Shariah law, though proving adultery is difficult and actual cases of execution for the crime are rare. In 2015,Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman convicted of adultery to death by stoning while her male partner received 100 lashes.

In Iraq and Syria, under Islamic State law, adultery is punishable by flogging and stoning.

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Adultery is also a crime with severe penalties under the Hudood Ordinance in Pakistan. The Philippines also considers adultery a crime, with gender-based differentiation in charges.

Several countries have changed their laws around adultery in recent years, including Taiwan, which decriminalized it in 2020 following a ruling by its Constitutional Court. In India, the Supreme Court declared the law criminalizing adultery unconstitutional in 2018. South Korea overturned its law against adultery in 2015.

Across Europe, adultery is not considered a crime in any country. It’s the same in Australia and Latin America, where most countries had laws against it until the 1990s.

Adultery is mentioned in Canada’s Criminal Code, but under Section 172, “Corrupting children.” Per that statute, anyone who engages in certain harmful behaviours in the presence of a child is committing an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for up to two years.

Those behaviours include every person who, in the home of a child, “participates in adultery or sexual immorality or indulges in habitual drunkenness or any other form of vice.”

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