Changes needed to make courts more welcoming to child witnesses, advocates say after Manitoba case stayed

WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

Advocates for child victims and witnesses say Canada's justice system has a lot of work to do to make it more fair and supportive for children.

Those calls come after sexual assault charges against a priest in Little Grand Rapids First Nation were stayed inside a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday, one day after the now nine-year-old girl at the centre of the case testified against him.

Christy Dzikowicz, the chief executive officer of the Toba Centre for Children & Youth — an advocacy centre focused on children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse — said she couldn't comment specifically on this week's case, but that generally, there are  long-standing issues around how and where kids give their testimony.

"I think most people in society … want to see offenders held accountable if and when crimes have been committed against children, and right now, the pathway to getting there is extraordinarily challenging for children," she said.

"We have a hard time having kids come forward in the first place."

Manitoba courtrooms can offer closed-circuit testimony, but Dzikowicz said to her knowledge, it's never been used in a case where a child has to testify.

This week, when the nine-year-old-girl delivered her testimony in Manitoba Court of King's Bench during the trial of Arul Savari, the priest sat in the courtroom, but behind a screen that prevented the girl from seeing him.

Dzikowicz argues that isn't a child-friendly initiative.

"The reality is if you've been harmed by a person, or potentially harmed by a person, and you know they're in the same room as you … children understand that that person is in the room, and that can be very intimidating," she said.

Savari was accused of sexual assault, sexual interference and forcible confinement in Little Grand Rapids First Nation, a remote First Nation, about 265 kilometres north of Winnipeg. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The girl clutched a stuffed animal as she testified on Tuesday, the first day of his trial. The allegations she made against Savari included that he took his clothes off, told her he loved her, touched her legs and her belly, and kissed her during an incident in 2023.

Savari's lawyers raised questions about some of the girl's allegations, saying there were inconsistencies in the girl's accounts.

Defence lawyer Tom Rees instead suggested none of the things the girl alleged actually happened, in a line of questioning the child repeatedly responded to with a soft "yes."