Ghomeshi trial shakes trust in justice system

‘Clear gender lines’ in response to verdict: poll

The acquittal of Jian Ghomeshi on sex assault charges has eroded Torontonians’ trust in the justice system, with women more l i kely than men to disapprove of the way it was both prosecuted and decided, according to a new poll.

“Confidence in our justice system seems to be shaken,” said Quito Maggi, president of polling firm Mainstreet Research, who was struck by the extent of the gender divide, especially on views of how Crown prosecutors ran their case.

He suspects a significant minority was impressed that legal logic seemed to win out over the massive social pressure to convict, and as a result their confidence in the justice system increased. This was the case for 28 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women, the poll shows.

But the more obvious trend was of people whose confidence in the court system decreased — 46 per cent of women and 30 per cent of men — although it is not clear whether this was due to how the case was conducted or the judge’s verdict.

“It’s clear that not many people believe the prosecution did a good job,” he said. For example, only eight per cent of women said they strongly approved of the Crown’s conduct versus 20 per cent of men. More than a third of women strongly disapproved, compared to just 23 per cent of men.

“There are really clear gender lines here in terms of how people reacted to how this was prosecuted,” Maggi said.

Those numbers suggest a split at the extremes, among people who were deeply interested in the case, taking part in what Maggi described as “trial by social media.” Indeed, in the middle ground of people who were “somewhat” approving or disapproving, the gender split was only 1 percentage point.

But among those who said they followed the case closely, women were f ar more likely to strongly disapprove, and men more likely to strongly approve. For example, 39 per cent of women said they strongly disapprove of the verdict compared to 30 per cent of men.

Curiously, strong approval of the verdict showed much less of a gender split, with 13 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women solidly in favour of the outcome.

“I think this is more about sense versus feel,” Maggi said.

“In polling, I always say there are head, heart, and gut voters. It’s the same thing with any issue.” While Maggi believes those who followed the trial closely would have been aware of the obstacles to a conviction, a lot of people still clearly felt the acquittal somehow missed the point of justice. The gut, he said, was in conflict with the head.

Incredibly, the poll even found some people who said they were unaware of the whole thing — five per cent of people aged 18 to 34, and 13 per cent of seniors. This was in contrast to the more than two- thirds of Torontonians who said they followed it closely.

Older people also seemed more approving of the outcome.

The poll of 2017 Torontonians was conducted by phone — both land lines and cellphones — on March 24, the day of the verdict. It has a margin of error of 2.18 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.