For citizens, any criminal charge is a painful and harrowing experience. It marks our lives and often leads to consequences in all spheres, such as at work, in our family and in our community.
Perhaps the most arduous ones are accusations of a sexual nature. The major media coverage in this type of accusation means that even if you are acquitted, you find yourself marked for life. Most of the time, we are taken away from our jobs and the presumption of innocence loses all its meaning, it no longer exists in the end. Once accused, it is as if one were guilty before trial because of the media publicizes the charges from the start of the proceedings.
Let’s do a short historical analysis in criminal law on the subject. Before 1987, no complaint of sexual assault could be accepted without corroboration. This meant, without going into the doctrine on the subject of corroboration, that the word of a plaintiff against that of an accused was not enough. Indeed, the allegation had to be corroborated by other evidence. For example: An eyewitness, an extrajudicial confession, undeniable physical evidence, etc… Remember that DNA evidence did not exist at the time.
The abolition of the need for corroboration in this type of crime was a revolution in criminal law. Indeed, thereafter the word of an alleged victim was sufficient against the word of a suspect. However, I make no criticism of this significant transition in our history, because it was obviously necessary. We could not continue to impose silence on the countless victims of these crimes that mark our history simply because they could not offer proof other than by their testimony.
However, since the change was made there have been consequences that have led to the opposite effect; false allegations of sexual assault. Let me explain.
My first case was in the middle of school education in 1987 some time after the changes in the law mentioned above. Elementary students were shown videos where children were invited to denounce any sexual gesture that could occur in their lives. Thus, we made them understand that it can happen in a family environment like “my uncle” and others. It was also said that it could happen at school from teachers or the support staff.
Very quickly, the students were talking to each other, especially during recess, questioning each other and without understanding the scope of what they had been presented with, easily came to the conclusion that certain friendly gestures from teachers were sexual in their eyes.
Thus fell the first denunciations against a physical education teacher where 8 children accused him of sexual assault.
I fiercely defended this professor despite all the media coverage and social opprobrium. I fought for the union to pay his legal fees, because the client vigorously proclaimed his innocence. It was a tough battle, because it was a first in Quebec. The police unions paid the lawyers’ fees when the policeman said he was innocent, just as the Canadian Medical Protective Association paid when a doctor said he was unjustly accused. So why not a teacher who works in a major union? Finally the union agreed to pay my fees. I was also telling union representatives at the time why a professor in the context of his work would have to pay fees for an act that he did not commit in the context of his work, provided that we believe in his innocence evidently?
After about thirty months of legal battles, the details of which I will avoid as it would take too long to relate, the teacher was acquitted of all charges, but not without leaving serious consequences. The first was that he could no longer teach because he lived in fear of finding himself in the same situation again. An education teacher is very vulnerable, because he touches children and in the context of the changes at the time, a simple touch on the shoulders, back or hair became sexual for children.
A flurry of charges was subsequently laid throughout Quebec. I was very busy, because my reputation at the school level snowballed, I was in great demand everywhere in Quebec. I was no longer just a defense lawyer, but an activist who raised awareness with the help of the unions, the government and especially the Ministry of Public Security, of the serious shortcomings in their investigations. A simple allegation at the time, especially at the beginning, resulted in an indictment that always ended in an acquittal. It was necessary to reform the police investigations in order to avoid the disastrous situations that the professors experienced after their proclamations of innocence by the court.
This is how multi-sector agreements were formulated in Quebec where many stakeholders now work together in cases of sexual reports. Police forces had to be made aware of the problems of false allegations of sexual abuse so that their investigations had to be carried out with more thoroughness and discernment.
I dare to believe that today, after more than thirty years of hindsight, we no longer blame teachers as easily as we did at the time. Above all, I am not saying that the exercise is impossible, on the contrary, our society is intolerant of this kind of crime, regardless of the situation, the place and the context in which it may occur. However, police forces today have more expertise in relation to possible accusations of false allegations of sexual acts in the school environment.
That being said, I will come back to you in the near future on the situation of sexual assault cases other than in schools where we are currently experiencing an abundance of cases of this nature. They deserve a little more thought from the world than that presented by the media.
