I pose this question to the community to try and capture a snapshot of our current social opinion. As someone who used to talk to kids and students about sex, health, safety,, consent and the ramifications of it (legal, or otherwise) I find there is a substantial change in attitude to this distinction

As a disclaimer, I am neither law enforcement or legally trained and my experience is specific to Canada. I volunteered at my university sexual health center for 4 years and did talks at student events and local schools about sexual health, safety and general knowledge. My knowledge base is through my university's program resources, contributed by professors, doctors, and social workers in their field to best present the medical, social and legal knowledge available to us at the time. It has been 5 years since I was an active member there so of course some things may have changed.

I don't want to provide too much of a narrative as I want as much openness for your own interpretation because I think it gives me a better understanding of where your preconceptions are. I also don't want to colour this with my own analysis as I want to invite all sides of this comparison. But hypothetical contrast, consider the following two people:

Person A: did not ask for consent/confirm consent before engaging in unwanted physical contact.

Person B: was given clear rejection before acting, but still engaged in unwanted physical contact through either verbal or physical coercion.

Both people have acted on an unwilling participant. Are these two people equally as bad? Is one better or worse than the other? Should public opinion or judicial consequence differentiate between the two?