Justice needs updated tools
If tools in your toolbox are old and worn out — your gardening shears dulled, your box cutter blade rusted and brittle — you throw them out and get new ones, right?
Because if they fumble the job and leave jagged scars in their wake, they are worse than useless.
The same can be said for the tools used by police and justice officials when it comes to unearthing the truth.
Two recent cases in Atlantic Canada reveal how outdated perceptions about victims of sexual assault can lead to injustice for those involved.
In Nova Scotia, Hannah’s story began when she hitched a ride on Sept. 1, 2016, in the Annapolis Valley. She says the logging truck driver demanded sexual favours and she refused. She says she told him she wanted to get out and asked him to drop her off near a streetlight, which he did, but pushed her from the truck. Then 64 years old, she lay on the side of a highway with broken bones for five hours until passersby found her.
Investigating officers couldn’t grasp why Hannah had not immediately gotten out of the truck. She explained she hadn’t wanted to be dropped off in an unlit area.
No charges were laid against the trucker.
Feeling that she had been dealt with unfairly, her complaint to the RCMP triggered an internal review.
That review dismissed her complaints, so she appealed to the RCMP Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. Now, more than five years after she was left on the side of the highway, Hannah has finally received an acknowledgement that her case was not handled properly.
“The commission finds that (the investigating officers) displayed a lack of sensitivity … as well as a lack of awareness that victims experience crimes and potential trauma in different ways.”
The report also noted that one of the investigating officers was a rookie who hadn’t been trained in interviewing sexual assault victims.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki recommended the officers involved complete the latest training in investigating sexual assault cases and receive “guidance on the level of sensitivity required when interacting with potential victims of sexual assault.”
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Court of Appeal found a trial judge had relied on outmoded stereotypes about sexual assault in acquitting a man of abusing his granddaughter, who was between seven and 10 when the offences were said to have occurred.
Because the child said she is happy when she sees her grandfather, which contradicted her testimony about the abuse, the man was found not guilty.
In the Court of Appeal decision, Justice Lois Hoegg noted the trial judge had relied on a stereotype that fails to recognize a sexual assault victim may act normally around their abuser because of embarrassment, denial, or so as not to alert others.
The grandfather will be retried.
Both cases demonstrate that when it comes to administering justice, the tools must be kept sharp at all times.