B.C. launches independent review into justice system’s treatment of victims of sexual and intimate partner violence

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B.C. is launching an independent review into how its justice system treats victims of sexual and intimate partner violence, offences that the province’s Attorney-General says are pervasive and extremely underreported.

Niki Sharma said in an interview she called the external review after hearing directly from victims about the problems they encounter seeking justice and after some problematic court cases made national headlines.

Those include a British Columbia Provincial Court justice referencing a voyeur’s “marital intimacy deficits” late last year while discussing the man’s propensity to reoffend and his prospects of rehabilitation,

Another case from the same time sparked public outrage after a defence lawyer suggested in court a 13-year-old girl may have consented to sex with the man that raped and killed her. Premier David Eby said later he found that argument so “profoundly offensive” he promised his government would press for reforms to a justice system he said failed the teenage victim and her family.

Ms. Sharma last week appointed Kim Stanton, a commissioner in Nova Scotia’s Mass Casualty Commission, to conduct a comprehensive probe and issue a final report by next May. The review will include a critique of everything from how police respond to intimate partner violence calls, to how judges sentence offenders in these cases. Ms. Sharma’s ministry noted that 37 per cent of women say they have been sexually assaulted after the age of 15, which is the highest rate for all provinces.

Ms. Sharma said at a minimum, she wants to increase the number of women who report when they are victimized. Statistics Canada’s last General Social Survey on Victimization, regarded as the most comprehensive snapshot of victims across the country, showed just 5 per cent of women who have suffered such violence report the incident to police.

“We need to get to the bottom of why people don’t report and why it’s so hard once they do,” she said.

“The real trauma, to me, is not only that it’s a crime that’s gone without a fair justice process – for there to be a chance at accountability – but also that that person is likely walking around facing or knowing that their perpetrator is out there still for the rest of their life.”

In March, the Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime announced it was launching its own systemic investigation of how survivors of sexual assault are treated by the Canadian criminal justice system.

Ms. Sharma said she hopes Dr. Stanton’s review will examine a number of areas including whether defence, Crown and judges are ensuring mandatory privacy protections are afforded to alleged sex-assault victims under Canada’s rape shield law. The protections were upheld in 2022 by the Supreme Court of Canada.

“The criminal trial process can be invasive, humiliating and degrading for victims of sexual offences, in part because myths and stereotypes continue to haunt the criminal justice system,” Chief Justice Richard Wagner and Justice Michael Moldaver wrote in the majority opinion.

In a 2019 decision in a case known as Barton, the Supreme Court issued a strong rebuke to a lower-court judge for failing to hold a hearing under the rape shield law, in the jury’s absence, to determine whether sexual activity between the accused and his victim could be introduced as evidence.

In the recent B.C. case where Ibrahim Ali was convicted despite his lawyer’s suggestions to jurors that the sex that preceded the 13-year-old girl’s killing could have been consensual, the B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed there was no such hearing but maintained these issues were addressed at various times during the trial. Last month, Mr. Ali was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for the next 25 years.

Elaine Craig, a leading authority on sexual assault law and a professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, welcomed B.C.’s new investigation but said these reviews are only as good as the willingness of political leaders to act on their recommendations.

Dr. Craig, who wrote a book on sexual assault prosecutions, said examining why so few women report sexual violence to police and improving upon that is very important. But she also hopes the review leads to reform of the treatment of victims who pursue justice through the courts, a process she said numerous studies have found is “inhumane and brutalizing” for too many survivors.

“You can’t turn to the criminal justice system to remediate social problems like sexual violence, but it remains our most significant or substantial state response to what is a really prolific social problem,” said Dr. Craig, who is now studying 300 recent sexual violence cases in Nova Scotia and why they were closed.