’I’m not about to send myself back into the kitchen because someone doesn’t like what I do’
Jian Ghomeshi’s lawyer Marie Henein defends her role in an interview with the CBC,
Marie Henein, the lawyer who represented Jian Ghomeshi at his first sexual-assault trial, “reluctantly” appeared on CBC’s The National on Tuesday night to brush off criticism that she betrayed her sex by defending him with gusto.
Much of the interview focused on her reaction to personal attacks. At one point, anchor Peter Mansbridge read aloud scathing Facebook messages aimed at her.
“Brave Marie Henein, you’ve just set women’s rights and rights of assault victims back 70 years,” one said.
Henein, who deleted her own Twitter account after being hired by Ghomeshi, used the interview as an opportunity to fire back at some of her critics.
She nodded stoically before saying: “They’re entitled to express that, but I would have quit this job a long time ago if I was listening and waiting for people’s approval.
“I know what my role is in the system, I know what my ethics are, I know who I am and I’m not about to send myself back into the kitchen because someone doesn’t like what I do.”
During the Ghomeshi trial, Henein became a divisive figure, at once praised and criticized for her zealous cross-examination of the complainants.
Madeline Ashby, an Ottawa Citizen columnist, described Henein as a “business Goth-shark lawyer" and said her defence of Ghomeshi was “disappointing.”
“There’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women,” Ashby wrote, quoting former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
Henein told Mansbridge the trial was “devastating to many people,” including her client.
“This amount of attention has been extraordinary and crushing,” she said. “And it would be devastating to anyone — I mean, I’m the lawyer and I’m getting a small percentage of it.”
Henein also defended the justice system against the suggestion that the Ghomeshi case demonstrates it is in need of reform in order to deal with sexual-assault cases. “It shouldn’t be treated any differently, in the sense that the presumption of innocence is set aside or reasonable doubt is thrown out the window.”
Ghomeshi, the disgraced star of flagship CBC arts radio show q, was acquitted March 24 on four charges of sexual assault and one count of choking brought against him by three women.
Henein didn’t respond to specific questions about Ghomeshi’s case because the interview fell within the 30-day period when an appeal of the verdict might be launched, Mansbridge said. She will defend Ghomeshi again in a trial — slated to begin in June — regarding a workplace incident related to his time at the CBC.