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Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism
Sexual Assault in Canada is the first English-language book in almost two decades to assess the state of sexual assault law and legal practice in Canada. Gathering together feminist scholars, lawyers, activists and policy-makers, it presents a picture of the difficult issues that Canadian women face when reporting and prosecuting sexual violence. The volume addresses many themes including the systematic undermining of women who have been sexually assaulted, the experiences of marginalized women, and the role of women’s activism. It explores sexual assault in various contexts, including professional sports, the doctor–patient relationship, and residential schools. And it highlights the influence of certain players in the reporting and litigation of sexual violence, including health care providers, social workers, police, lawyers and judges. Sexual Assault in Canada provides both a multi-faceted assessment of the progress of feminist reforms to Canadian sexual assault law and practice, and articulates a myriad of new ideas, proposed changes to law, and inspired activist strategies.
This book was created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Jane Doe’s remarkable legal victory against the Toronto police for sex discrimination in the policing of rape and for negligence in failing to warn her of a serial rapist. The case made legal history and motivated a new generation of feminist activists. This book honours her pioneering work by reflecting on how law, legal practice and activism have evolved over the past decade and where feminist research and reform should lead in the years to come.
This book was created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Jane Doe’s remarkable legal victory against the Toronto police for sex discrimination in the policing of rape and for negligence in failing to warn her of a serial rapist. The case made legal history and motivated a new generation of feminist activists. This book honours her pioneering work by reflecting on how law, legal practice and activism have evolved over the past decade and where feminist research and reform should lead in the years to come.
- GenresFeminismLawNonfiction
836 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2012
3 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth A. Sheehy
8 books8 followersElizabeth Sheehy holds an LL.B. (Osgoode 1981), an LL.M. (Columbia 1984), and an LL.D. (Honoris causa) (Law Society of Upper Canada 2005). She started teaching at the University of Ottawa in 1984 and has been a Full Professor since 1995. She currently holds the Shirley Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession (2013-15) and previously held the Chair when it was first established (2002-04). She is also Chair of the Examinations Committee and a Member of the School of Graduate Studies since 1990.
Professor Sheehy teaches Criminal Law and Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, Sexual Assault Law, and Defending Battered Women on Trial at the University of Ottawa. She has been a Visiting Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law, Sydney University, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Law, and the University of Auckland, Faculty of Law. She has also participated in various educational programs for the Canadian Judicial Institute on topics such as sexual assault, wife assault, and women and girls in the justice system. In 1999 Professor Sheehy received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Common Law Students’ Society at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.
Professor Sheehy has been a Member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1987. She was co-counsel for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in its intervention in R v JA (“advance consent” to sexual assault) (2011 SCC 28) and participated on the legal subcommittee for the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) and LEAF in R v Ryan (2013 SCC 3), R v NS (the “niqab” case) (2012 SCC 72) and R v Ewanchuk (“implied consent” and sexual assault) (SCC 1999). She has participated in legal work on the Jane Doe litigation (ONCJ 1998) and the legal intervention by Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter in the Bonnie Mooney litigation against the AG of BC (BCCA 2004). She has also presented legal briefs before governmental committees, for example on behalf of the National Association of Women and the Law with respect to Bill B-72, (Extreme Intoxication). Most recently in 2009 she appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs regarding Bill C-15 (Mandatory Minimum Sentences)(see Publications below).
Professor Sheehy is involved in many other law reform activities around equality rights and social justice issues: she has worked in a consultative capacity with the Department of Justice on the reform of criminal law (Preliminary Inquiries, Provocation, Self-Defence, Extreme Intoxication, Disclosure of Women’s Confidential Records), with the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies on Judge Lynn Ratushny's Self-Defence Review, through the Policy Implementation Assistance Program (CIDA) and the Social Affairs Committee of the Vietnam National Assembly on its Gender Equality Law, with the African Canadian Legal Clinic on its intervention in R v Golden (strip searches) (SCC 2001) and R v Nur (challenge to mandatory minimum sentences) (2011 ONSC 4874), with The Equality Effect on its women’s rights project aimed at criminalizing marital rape in three African countries.
In 2009 she convened the first national conference in Canada on sexual assault law, entitled Sexual Assault Law, Practice and Activism in a Post-Jane Doe Era, featuring 70 speakers from across Canada as well as New Zealand, South Africa, and Israel. With Jane Doe (the litigant in Jane Doe v. Metropolitan Toronto Commissioners of Police (1998), 39 O.R. (3d) 487 (Ct. ) as Conference Co-Ordinator, they fund-raised and launched a sold out conference March 6th and 7th 2009, attended by over 350 law students, activists, professors and lawyers. The event was opened by Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, cheered on by multiple standing ovations, and closed by a slide show tribute to Jane Doe and her work. Over 50 papers arising from this event are forthcoming in thre
Professor Sheehy teaches Criminal Law and Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, Sexual Assault Law, and Defending Battered Women on Trial at the University of Ottawa. She has been a Visiting Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law, Sydney University, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Law, and the University of Auckland, Faculty of Law. She has also participated in various educational programs for the Canadian Judicial Institute on topics such as sexual assault, wife assault, and women and girls in the justice system. In 1999 Professor Sheehy received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Common Law Students’ Society at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.
Professor Sheehy has been a Member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1987. She was co-counsel for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in its intervention in R v JA (“advance consent” to sexual assault) (2011 SCC 28) and participated on the legal subcommittee for the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) and LEAF in R v Ryan (2013 SCC 3), R v NS (the “niqab” case) (2012 SCC 72) and R v Ewanchuk (“implied consent” and sexual assault) (SCC 1999). She has participated in legal work on the Jane Doe litigation (ONCJ 1998) and the legal intervention by Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter in the Bonnie Mooney litigation against the AG of BC (BCCA 2004). She has also presented legal briefs before governmental committees, for example on behalf of the National Association of Women and the Law with respect to Bill B-72, (Extreme Intoxication). Most recently in 2009 she appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs regarding Bill C-15 (Mandatory Minimum Sentences)(see Publications below).
Professor Sheehy is involved in many other law reform activities around equality rights and social justice issues: she has worked in a consultative capacity with the Department of Justice on the reform of criminal law (Preliminary Inquiries, Provocation, Self-Defence, Extreme Intoxication, Disclosure of Women’s Confidential Records), with the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies on Judge Lynn Ratushny's Self-Defence Review, through the Policy Implementation Assistance Program (CIDA) and the Social Affairs Committee of the Vietnam National Assembly on its Gender Equality Law, with the African Canadian Legal Clinic on its intervention in R v Golden (strip searches) (SCC 2001) and R v Nur (challenge to mandatory minimum sentences) (2011 ONSC 4874), with The Equality Effect on its women’s rights project aimed at criminalizing marital rape in three African countries.
In 2009 she convened the first national conference in Canada on sexual assault law, entitled Sexual Assault Law, Practice and Activism in a Post-Jane Doe Era, featuring 70 speakers from across Canada as well as New Zealand, South Africa, and Israel. With Jane Doe (the litigant in Jane Doe v. Metropolitan Toronto Commissioners of Police (1998), 39 O.R. (3d) 487 (Ct. ) as Conference Co-Ordinator, they fund-raised and launched a sold out conference March 6th and 7th 2009, attended by over 350 law students, activists, professors and lawyers. The event was opened by Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, cheered on by multiple standing ovations, and closed by a slide show tribute to Jane Doe and her work. Over 50 papers arising from this event are forthcoming in thre
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August 3, 2025
I did not read the entire book, to get that out of the way to start.
One part of particular concern is the chapter by Meagan Johnston. In her chapter she made it obvious that women were completely within their rights to adopt a different proof standard. That it is okay for them to seek remedies for male transgression (or perceived transgression in many cases) outside the justice system, by using community punishments, whisper networks, and campaigns of mass shaming. This to me is the complete rejection of centuries of law. A double standard that would set a worryingly low standard required for conviction. Obviously to Meagan Johnston in Blackstone's Ratio, 'It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer'.
To quote Meagan Johnston '“If someone claims to have been assaulted, the Sisterhood believes her. Individual accounts of rape do not have to be measured against some standard of truth and accountability—they are accepted at face value” (p. 277). This quote is in reference to a group in Edmonton known as the Garneau Sisterhood, where she describes its alternative conception of justice. This to me speaks of a double standard where an accuser has the ultimate power in any situation.
One part of particular concern is the chapter by Meagan Johnston. In her chapter she made it obvious that women were completely within their rights to adopt a different proof standard. That it is okay for them to seek remedies for male transgression (or perceived transgression in many cases) outside the justice system, by using community punishments, whisper networks, and campaigns of mass shaming. This to me is the complete rejection of centuries of law. A double standard that would set a worryingly low standard required for conviction. Obviously to Meagan Johnston in Blackstone's Ratio, 'It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer'.
To quote Meagan Johnston '“If someone claims to have been assaulted, the Sisterhood believes her. Individual accounts of rape do not have to be measured against some standard of truth and accountability—they are accepted at face value” (p. 277). This quote is in reference to a group in Edmonton known as the Garneau Sisterhood, where she describes its alternative conception of justice. This to me speaks of a double standard where an accuser has the ultimate power in any situation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review