Presumption of innocence

Re: We’ve lost the presumption of innocence, Christie Blatchford, Jan. 13

Presumption of innocence is an important construct within the criminal justice system. Outside the criminal justice system, presumption of innocence is inconsequential, a bit like gravity on the international space station. For a very long time, most sexual misconduct never saw the inside of a courtroom, and perpetrators routinely went free for want of effective prosecution. Victims, and those merely claiming to be victims, are now routinely presenting their grievances to the court of public opinion, and the accused are routinely refusing to sue for libel and slander in courts established for that purpose. Christie Blatchford may have noticed that there is no backlog of cases in the court of public opinion where justice is swift and generally unappealable. She may also ask herself if the refusal of accused sexual abusers to sue for libel is a tacit admission of their guilt.

But let us not holler too loudly for any dismantling of the court of public opinion. Look at how well it worked for Lindsay Shepherd at Wilfrid Laurier University. No reasonable person believes she would have received anything resembling justice had she appealed her inquisition to some formally constituted tribunal at the university or within the government- run court system. Indeed, Ms. Blatchford will recall that she played an important role in Lindsay Shepherd’s trial before the court of public opinion that so promptly and inexpensively convicted WLU and its administrators and exonerated Shepherd. Patrick Cowan, Toronto The messy way the sexual assault drama has unfolded lurches hysterically between four injustices: 1. Women who complained were ignored, punished, or bought off while the perpetrator continued his assaults. 2. A woman can now make a vague allegation and destroy a man and sometimes the company he heads, instantly, without any objective evaluation of the truth or seriousness of the allegation (often a note in the press is enough). 3. Some of the guilty men have viciously revictimized the victims by publicly calling them liars (or even hired people to intimidate them.) 4. There is absolute silence in this narrative about the sex- ual assault and rape of men by women, which is not rare. Surely, it’s time that we find a way to calmly understand what’s going on and deal with it in a way that is fair to both sexes. Philip Mathias, Toronto