In an appearance on CBC's Power and Politics last week, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter said new cyber-bullying legislation is just part of the solution in preventing future tragedies such as the Rehtaeh Parsons suicide three weeks ago.
In 2011, Parsons, then-15, was allegedly raped by a group of four boys. Pictures of the crime were posted on the Internet. Her father, Glen Canning, told the media the rape, and the resulting cyber-harassment and mockery at school, led to her suicide saying she had told a psychiatrist she had a plan to hang herself almost a year to the day before she hung herself.
Following meetings with the family and Prime Minister Stephen Harper on April 23, Dexter told Power and Politics host Evan Soloman, "There's something we need to do here, which is to create a kind of social disapproval of this kind of behaviour."
After I heard that, I found my mouth literally agape. I had to go to the CBC website and replay the clip to make sure I heard him correctly.
Since when is it not socially unacceptable to gang-rape a teenage girl (or anyone for that matter) then post pictures of it on the Internet? Since when is 'behaviour' an appropriate description of gang-rape and criminal harassment?
He went on to suggest that, historically, campaigns to make certain types of behaviour socially unacceptable-in this context, I'm guessing smoking, drunk driving etc.-have been highly successful. Those things are certainly bad behaviours, but what we are talking about here is not, it is a despicable, violent crime.
Unfortunately, the premier may be right. Women have never been taken seriously when it comes to rape, even in Canada. In fact, immediately following the public outrage in the Parsons case, Dexter announced an independent inquiry into why nothing was done to bring the perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice, suggesting authorities had dropped the ball.
After meeting with the P.M., however, the premier insisted that existing legislation is "clearly not effective" and law enforcement authorities "don't have the tools" they need.
Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, says that is utter nonsense.
"We currently have strong laws, we have criminal harassment laws, we have rape laws and that's what wasn't being enforced," she said, also in an interview with Soloman. "I think it's a lot of smoke and mirrors to now say, 'oh, we're going to look at it, we're going to develop a new law, we're going to take this seriously.' Okay, take it seriously and don't ever let this happen to another young woman."
I am going to have to side with Professor Pate here. Despite the fact we have been fighting a blame-the-victim rape culture since the 1970s, the attitude remains thoroughly ingrained, even in Canada.
In February 2011, Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto police officer, set off a worldwide protest movement with one ignorant, insensitive statement to a group of female students at Osgoode Hall Law School, who had turned up to get some tips on personal safety.
"You know, I think we're beating around the bush, here," he said, according to Joey Hoffman, an Osgoode residence fellow. "I've been told I'm not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
The Toronto Police Service disavowed the attitude being widespread and Sanguinetti quickly apologized for the remark in an email to the school. Nevertheless, the seed for SlutWalk had been sown. In April 2011, more than 3,000 women, some dressed provocatively, marched on Toronto police headquarters chanting and sporting signs with slogans such as, "Don't tell us how to dress, tell men not to rape."
The phenomenon spread quickly across North America and internationally to Brazil, Australia, the U.K., Israel and, of particular note recently, to India, where the fatal rape of a young woman on a public bus has resulted in rioting in the streets.
Our own national outrage over Rehtaeh Parsons' death prompted the RCMP and Nova Scotia prosecutors to reopen the case citing "new evidence."
Pate isn't buying that. She said it's not so much that Nova Scotia authorities could not make a case as, "they decided not to."
In another high profile and similar case in Steubenville, Ohio that broke last year, authorities not only didn't do anything, but allegedly actively participated in a cover-up because the rapists, now serving time, were members of the prominent high school football team.
"What is the message girls are given?" Pate asked. "If you go out drinking and something happens, you're responsible, essentially, how women have been treated forever."
That, in a nutshell, is why sexual assault is still one of the most underreported crimes, even in Canada. I keep repeating that because we are notorious for a collective head-in-the-sand reaction to widespread realities that seem very un-Canadian.
Regular readers of this column are no doubt aware that I generally view crime in shades of grey. This one is pure black and white. Under no circumstance, under no condition, under no imaginable stretch of rationalization, is rape excusable.
I would like to think that Rehtaeh Parsons will be the catalyst that once and for all erases the entrenched misogyny that allows the national disgrace of violence against women-make no mistake, rape is not about sex-to continue, but you can call me cynical.
In the last three weeks, the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in Halifax has been deluged by more calls for help than its staff can handle, prompting the organization to petition for emergency funding. I don't see any dollars flowing from any level of government.
Authorities are making noise that they are going to start taking these crimes seriously. All I see is deflection and obfuscation-the mighty Harper spin machine whirring into action to lay the blame on the Criminal Code instead of showing some leadership where it really counts.
We don't need new laws. We don't need inter-ministerial investigations or inquiries. We don't need an inter-provincial effort to lobby the feds for new laws.
We know what the problems are. We already have the laws to deal with them.
What we don't have is the political will to change and in that sense Premier Dexter is correct. It falls on every single one of us, in our homes, in our classrooms, in our places of work, to remind our brothers, our fathers, our friends, our co-workers, our members of parliament the only acceptable way to treat our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, is with respect.
