COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
Did Jian Ghomeshi’s acquittal change the public’s attitude on sexual assault claims?
Two thirds of Canadians surveyed believe the majority of sexual assault claims are true, despite the way the credibility of women complainants was impugned in the high-profile Jian Ghomeshi case.
When Justice William B. Horkins acquitted the former CBC radio host at the end of March, he rebuked the three women for “factual inconsistencies,” “questionable behaviour” and “outright deception.”
“The success of this prosecution depended entirely on the court being able to accept each complainant as a sincere, honest and accurate witness. Each complainant was revealed at trial to be lacking in these important attributes,” the judge’s ruling reads.
After the acquittal, a charitable organization for women and girls commissioned a poll to gauge whether the case tainted the public’s attitude toward sexual assault allegations, said Anuradha Dugal, director of violence prevention at the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
The poll showed 67 per cent of Canadians believe the majority of sexual assault claims are true. According to the survey, only 1 per cent of respondents believed the majority of allegations are false. Seven per cent believe they’re exaggerated, while 24 per cent didn’t know what to believe.
Dugal said the results suggest the case did not have a “terrifically negative influence — people are still believing women,” she said.
“Obviously we’d like the numbers to be a lot higher, but we think that it’s a sign that, broadly speaking, Canadians are understanding more and more that people are not making false claims and the claims aren’t exaggerated.”
When it comes to assigning blame, 73 per cent blame the perpetrator, 7 per cent lay fault with both the assailant and the victim, 11 per cent believe “sexual assault is a social issue, so it is the fault of all Canadians” and 2 per cent blamed the victim.
Dugal said she found the most disturbing part of the survey to be responses to the question: “Why do you think the perpetrator is to blame for sexual assault in most cases?”
Forty-five per cent of Canadians believe it’s because “the perpetrator couldn’t control their sexual urges,” and 61per cent agreed “the perpetrator must have thought they could get away with it.”
“That’s very, very worrying, because that means most people think that you can get away with sex assault,” Dugal said. Nevertheless, Dugal says there are steps that could be taken to alter public attitudes toward sexual assault, including more education for judges and prosecutors and others in the justice system. As well, students should be taught early on about healthy relationships, to learn to challenge rape jokes and victim blaming, and understand how to help a sexual assault victim, she said.
The online survey was conducted among 1,507 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panellists. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The survey was conducted April 13-14.