QUESTION PERIOD — Justice
Awareness of Sexual Assault Training for Judges
April 11, 2019
Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.
Senator Harder, this morning I read a disturbing news report. In Calgary, Justice Scott Brooker found two men accused of gang raping a teenage girl not guilty. The justice found that video evidence of the acts of sex, along with the lack of consistency in the statements of the teenage victims’ evidence, led him to believe she had not just given her consent to sexual intercourse, in his view she had indeed wanted “rough sex.”
A third accused in the same matter, a youth, in a different court, before a different justice, pleaded guilty to sexual assault. In that case, Justice O’Gorman also viewed the video evidence and said that the video depicted, “the most appalling acts of human depravity I have ever had the displeasure to witness as a judge,” and, “there is not one part of either video that shows any scintilla of consent.”
Firstly, this underscores the criticism a number of us had with the tragic shortfall of the consent amendments to the Criminal Code that were passed by Parliament last year, but we will live to fight that another day.
Senator Harder, Bill C-337, authored by the Honourable Rona Ambrose and sponsored in this chamber by Senator Andreychuk, which deals with the training of judges with respect to sexual assault, is awaiting consideration by the Legal Committee. There is a backlog of government legislation there, as we know, and it’s appropriate those bills be dealt with as priority. However, this has been in the chamber since May of 2017.
There is/was all-party support in the other place. Even though it’s a private member’s bill and not subject to your office’s influence, I wonder if you would undertake to have a discussion with the leaders and facilitators in this place. I would like to ask this question to each of them to see if they could commit to find a way for this bill to be brought forward and dealt with. It may be another committee, but I say in my support of Senator Andreychuk’s efforts, of Rona Ambrose and my support of women and victims of sexual assault and this particular teenage girl, it is such a necessary next step. If you could undertake to have those conversations, maybe the good will of the all-male leadership and facilitator group could find a way to bring this to a review by a committee and third reading in this place.
Senator, I thank you for your question. As the question in the preamble would indicate, this is not a matter of government legislation. Although I’m happy to remind all colleagues that I was one of the early speakers on this bill and spoke not only in support of the bill personally, but also on behalf of the government and urged its adoption.
I will certainly raise again in the leaders’ forum the opportunity that we might have to exercise some nudging of consideration, and I will even offer — should there be a will to have it put in place — to present a motion to the Senate so that they could ask the relevant committee to study the bill on a priority basis, even though that might displace government business for a day or two.
