Judge’s comments in sex-assault case reviewed by top legal body
Atop legal governing body is examining comments by an Alberta judge who asked a complainant in a sexual assault trial, “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?”
A complaint was filed to the Canadian Judicial Council by four law professors against the conduct of Justice Robin Camp, who is now a federal court judge. He was an Alberta Provincial Court judge in 2014 at the time of the comments.
The case involved a 19-year-old woman who said she was sexually assaulted over a bathroom sink by a Calgary man at a house party.
The professors’ complaint includes the passage: “He asked the complainant questions such as ‘Why didn’t you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate you?’ and ‘Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?’
“He also indicated she had not explained ‘why she allowed the sex to happen if she didn’t want it’ and not- ed that when she asked the accused if he had a condom, that was ‘an inescapable conclusion (that) if you have one, I’m happy to have sex with you.’ ”
The complaint was jointly filed earlier this month by Professors Alice Woolley and Jennifer Koshan of the University of Calgary and Elaine Craig and Jocelyn Downie of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.
Camp has not yet filed a response to the complaint, nor could he be reached immediately for comment.
The council has a wide range of options, should it rule against a judge, ranging from ordering counselling to recommending dismissal.
In the case, Camp acquitted Alexander Scott Wagar of sexual assault on Sept. 9, 2014. That decision was overturned by the Alberta Court of Appeal, which questioned Camp’s understanding of the law regarding sexual assault and consent. There will be a retrial.
“We are also persuaded that sexual stereotypes and stereotypical myths, which have long since been discredited, may have found their way into the trial judge’s judgment,” the Court of Appeal ruling stated.
The complaint by the four professors argues that Camp dismissed Canada’s rape shield laws “as unfair and incursive.”
“He suggested that the limits to admitting evidence of the complainant’s sexual history ‘hamstrung the defence’ and arose from ‘very, very incursive legislation,’ ” it states.