Sex assault survivors say they'll only get justice if report's proposed changes are enforced
CBC
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Survivors of sexual violence say a newly released national report on how the justice system fails them has a potentially fatal flaw: its recommendations for change are not enforceable.
Unless those in authority make those changes, the status quo will be maintained — a justice system that favours the accused at the expense of the victim, they say.
"To the people who have the power to enact changes in this system, do something. So many people have died with their stories and their truths, but you didn’t do anything," said Jewel Pierre-Roscelli, who was sexually assaulted in 2023.
"It’s dehumanizing."
On Wednesday, the Federal Office of the Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime released a report titled Rethinking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Systemic Investigation. The 288-page report has 43 recommendations for change.
It’s time for police and lawyers to learn the difference between consent and survival mode, the report says, and to stop treating survivors as criminals. It’s time to stop weaponizing the victim’s therapeutic records to hold it against them in court. And to ensure that survivors can access these rights, it’s time to provide independent legal counsel — a lawyer — just like the accused.
"At its core, we’d like to see enforceable rights for the victim," said Benjamin Roebuck, the federal ombudsperson for victims of crime.
"Right now, they’re feeling more like evidence than a victim.”
That’s in part because players in the justice system — from police to judges — too often mistake a victim's response to an assault as consent to the assault, instead of recognizing it for what it is: an effort to survive it, say victim advocates and survivors.
"I'm someone who’s just experienced hurt, and police are worried if I’d said 'no' or not," Pierre-Roscelli said. "It’s retraumatizing. I’m not treated like a human. I’m not treated like I am believed."
The report, Roebuck said, recognizes that.
"We deal essentially with myths and stereotypes about sexual violence that aren’t valid lines of questioning or reasoning and shouldn’t be part of the justice system," Roebuck said in an interview.
"Like making assumptions about what it looks like when someone is afraid."
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