“We call it equality”: The Faculty of Law’s Jane Doe 2009 Conference
On March 6 and 7, 2009, men and women from across Canada and around the world gathered at the Faculty of Law to illuminate and scrutinize issues of sexual assault at a ground-breaking conference entitled “Sexual Assault Law, Practice and Activism in a Post-Jane Doe Era.”
Marking the passing of the tenth anniversary of Jane Doe’s legal victory against the Metro Toronto Police, the conference sought to celebrate the advances made in the responses to sexual assault, while criticizing the persistent obstacles to women’s equality that remain associated with the crime.
In 1986, the Metro Toronto Police failed to issue a warning to women in a Toronto neighbourhood about a sexual predator who scaled the sides of apartment buildings and entered the balconies of women who lived alone. Jane Doe became the fifth reported woman to be raped by the predator known as “the balcony rapist.” She subsequently sued the Board of Commissioners for the Metro Toronto Police on three separate grounds: negligence, a violation of her Charter equality rights, and an infringement of her Charter right to security of the person.
The 11-year legal battle set a new precedent for holding police responsible for discrimination in sexual assault investigation. But while Canadian sexual assault law has undergone significant reforms in the last two decades in response to women’s advocacy, the rate at which women report sexual assault to authorities has fallen, and conviction rates for this offence are much lower than those of other assault offences. Moreover, despite the disclosure of numerous systemic failings in policing methods, there has been little change in the legal processing of the crime. The rate at which sexual assault is “unfounded” by police is far higher than that of other offences, suggesting that myths and stereotypes continue to plague the policing of sexual assault.
Conference convener, Professor Elizabeth Sheehy, recounted these details and graciously thanked Jane Doe for her unwavering commitment to the conference and the overall cause as she made her opening remarks to a packed auditorium. “I think we need to take from this very full room,” said Prof. Sheehy, “that there is an overwhelming interest and commitment among women in this country to work to change sexual assault law and practice, and I hope that this event gives us the opportunity to not only exchange ideas, but to work together and to take heart from each other’s work.”
The conference welcomed over 350 registrants, including community-based workers, activists, government employees, lawyers, academics and university students from Law, Legal Studies, Sociology, Women’s Studies, Political Science, Criminology and Social Work. The audience was also joined by a class of high school students from St. Paul High School in Ottawa.
To launch the event, Prof. Sheehy welcomed former Supreme Court of Canada Justice, the Honourable Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, to give the first address of the conference. As only the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice L’Heureux-Dubé was highly influential in reforming Canadian rape law and initiating substantial changes to common law practices in the interest of women’s equality. “I would dare to suggest,” stated Prof. Sheehy, “that no other Canadian judge, or in fact any judge in the world, has been so prolific or influential in the area of sexual assault law.”
Reminding the audience that not even a century has passed since women were denied legal, political, social and economic rights solely because of their gender, Justice L’Heureux-Dubé urged participants to remember the past, while remaining steadfast in the pursuit of goals for the future. “The struggle will not stop,” she said, “until women are treated with the same dignity, respect and consideration as any other member of society. We call it equality. A fundamental human right guaranteed to every human being through the sole act of being born.”
Justice L’Heureux-Dubé acknowledged that the significant progress of the last century deserved to be celebrated, but she highlighted the crime of violence against women as one area that has seen too little progress. “We have to recognize that there are no quick solutions for the elimination of violence against women, but there is a need for sustained efforts by civil society, governments, and dedicated men and women to pursue gender equality.”
Over the course of the two days of the conference, numerous panels addressed issues of Aboriginal and racialized women and sexual assault; women with disabilities and sexual assault; HIV/AIDS and sexual assault; the role and impact of the media, legislators, the judicial system, and more. All panels embodied a spirit of constructive criticism that sought to find genuine methods for advancing the cause of women’s equality. Professor Constance Backhouse, for example, spoke about the importance of looking for a “feminist remedy” for sexual assault, arguing that without that, all efforts to reform the legal system will fail.
Alternatively, a panel on the policing of sexual assault, which included Professor Blair Crew, presented shocking statistics confirming that a woman is told by the police that she is lying when she reports a rape about twice as often as the police actually lay charges. Participants in this panel suggested that feminist doctrine and advocacy alone have failed to influence police investigations and prosecutorial practice, and suggested instead that suing police for wrongful unfounding cases might force a change in the systemic sexism that plagues many sexual assault squads. “A personal highlight for me,” explained Prof. Crew, “was when I was challenged, after my presentation, by a member of the Ottawa Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit, who told me that I was ‘lying’ about the extent of wrongful unfounding, even though I was only relying on figures obtained from the Ottawa Police themselves.”
The final panel of the conference offered a stunning display of images from artist Shary Boyle, and made the case for using art to move forward in challenging sexual assault. Professors Rebecca Johnson and Gillian Calder from the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria concluded the conference with a tribute to Jane Doe’s book, The Story of Jane Doe, accompanied by a slideshow of photographs of the book in many hands and many places.
“This conference was an extraordinary event for all,” said Prof. Sheehy, summing up the weekend. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and many have asked that the conference be made an annual event.”