URI:
   DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Love God Only
  HTML https://lovegodonly.createaforum.com
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       *****************************************************
   DIR Return to: Women's Isses
       *****************************************************
       #Post#: 14149--------------------------------------------------
       Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: guest6 Date: March 10, 2017, 1:19 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       A **** victim referred to as "the accused" and if that's not bad
       enough the judge makes further remarks in effect putting the
       **** victim on trial. I don't see any remarks like that by the
       judge directed to the man who she said raped her.
       This happens too often to **** victims which is one of the main
       reasons that many women don't report being raped.
       Judge resigns over **** trial comment: ‘Why couldn’t you just
       keep your knees together?’
       By Derek Hawkins
       March 10, 2017 at 4:20 AM
       A Canadian federal judge who asked an alleged **** victim in
       court why she couldn’t “just keep your knees together” resigned
       Thursday, after a judicial panel released a scathing report
       calling for him to be removed from office.
       Justice Robin Camp of the Alberta Federal Court came under fire
       in 2014 for badgering the woman during trial about whether she
       could have done more to defend herself against the man she
       claimed had attacked her. The Canadian Judicial Council
       conducted a 15-month review of the exchange after receiving
       dozens of complaints from the public.
       In its report Thursday, the council found that Camp’s conduct
       was “manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of
       impartiality, integrity and independence.”
       “Public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the
       judge incapable of executing the judicial office,” the council
       wrote. “The judge’s removal is warranted.
       Camp presided over the sexual assault trial of Alexander Wagar,
       a 29-year-old Calgary man. The accuser was identified as a
       19-year-old woman who said Wagar had raped her over a bathroom
       sink during a house party, as The Washington Post has reported.
       Throughout the trial, Camp falsely referred to the woman as “the
       accused” and suggested she could have staved off the alleged
       attack.
       “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” Camp asked at
       one point.
       He later said that young women “want to have sex, particularly
       if they’re drunk,” and told the accuser that “some sex and pain
       sometimes go together” and “that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
       Camp also questioned why the woman didn’t “just sink your bottom
       down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate you,” saying that
       she could have avoided the attack if she had turned her pelvis
       “slightly” away.
       Camp acquitted Wagar in September 2014, but an appeals court
       overturned the ruling. In January 2017, Wagar was acquitted
       again in his retrial, with a new judge finding that there was
       reasonable doubt that he had sexually assaulted the woman.
       Wagar’s accuser said she felt so browbeaten by Camp that she
       considered suicide.
       “What did he get from asking that,” she said. “He made me hate
       myself and he made me feel like I should have done something,
       like I was some kind of a ****.”
       During the council’s investigation, Camp said he didn’t realize
       his comments were problematic until his verdict was appealed,
       according to Canadian Broadcasting Corp. He said his words came
       from a “deep-rooted” bias “that all women behave in the same way
       and should resist.”
  HTML https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/10/judge-resigns-over-jabs-at-****-accuser-why-couldnt-you-just-keep-your-knees-together/
       The judge had tried to hold on to his position and told the
       Council he had undergone education and had apologised for his
       comments.
       #Post#: 14150--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: HOLLAND Date: March 10, 2017, 3:45 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       ^^^What is curious about this, Heartsong, is the underlying
       contempt that the judge has in respect to women.  Judges, by
       their very nature of course, are suppose to be impartial in
       respect to matters of equity and moderation.  Perhaps, behind
       all this is an angry relationship with a woman and an angry
       response to feminine independence and modern manners of dress.
       I wonder what the story is behind all this.
       #Post#: 14153--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: paralambano Date: March 10, 2017, 5:21 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       This judge was appointed to criminal cases in 2012 having served
       as a lawyer and civil litigator dealing with oil contracts
       before that if Wikipedia is to be believed. If so, I wonder
       about the vetting process here.
       para  .  .  .
       #Post#: 14154--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: guest6 Date: March 10, 2017, 7:29 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Even after the judge apologized and underwent counseling, he
       again referred to the alleged **** victim as "the accused" and
       expected to retain his job.
       From Wikipedia:
       Camp later acquitted the defendant Alexander Wagar.[12]
       After acquitting him, he told the defendant, "I want you to tell
       your friends, your male friends, that they have to be far more
       gentle with women. They have to be far more patient. And they
       have to be very careful. To protect themselves, they have to be
       very careful."
       In October 2015, the Court of Appeal of Alberta struck down
       Camp's decision and ordered a retrial. The court said that Camp
       seemed to not understand the laws on consent and an alleged ****
       victim's sexual activity, and that judge may have used "sexual
       stereotypes and stereotypical myths, which have long since been
       discredited.
       In November 2015, four Alberta law professors made a complaint
       about Camp's conduct to the Canadian Judicial Council.[1][8]
       Thirty different groups and people also later made complaints to
       the council.[7] Critics called the comments "misogynistic" and
       Camp a "**** myth propagator."
       Camp apologized at the hearing, and said that he had undergone
       counseling with experts to improve his understandings of sexual
       assault.[18] He acknowledged that his knowledge of Canadian
       criminal law while he served as a judge at the sexual assault
       was "non-existent."[3] As he addressed the Panel,[b] Camp again
       referred to the alleged **** victim as "the accused" and
       characterised her as a "fragile personality.[b]
       #Post#: 14155--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: guest6 Date: March 10, 2017, 8:18 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=paralambano link=topic=1185.msg14153#msg14153
       date=1489188108]
       This judge was appointed to criminal cases in 2012 having served
       as a lawyer and civil litigator dealing with oil contracts
       before that if Wikipedia is to be believed. If so, I wonder
       about the vetting process here.
       para  .  .  .
       [/quote]
       He said that he was living in South Africa before moving to
       Canada where he said they have "other issues". I'm not sure if
       he meant that he was more familiar with these other issues or if
       these other issues were more important than rape crimes.
       It's astounding that he was later appointed as a Federal Judge.
       In 2012, he was appointed as a judge to the Criminal Division of
       the Provincial Court of Alberta.[1][6] On June 26, 2015, despite
       the controversy over a 2014 sexual assault trial, Conservative
       Justice Minister Peter MacKay appointed Camp to the Federal
       Court of Canada.
       #Post#: 14156--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: guest6 Date: March 10, 2017, 8:34 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=HOLLAND link=topic=1185.msg14150#msg14150
       date=1489182357]
       ^^^What is curious about this, Heartsong, is the underlying
       contempt that the judge has in respect to women.  Judges, by
       their very nature of course, are suppose to be impartial in
       respect to matters of equity and moderation.  Perhaps, behind
       all this is an angry relationship with a woman and an angry
       response to feminine independence and modern manners of dress.
       I wonder what the story is behind all this.
       [/quote]
       Perhaps you're right. There could be another factor and that is
       how his father viewed women and what he may have learned from
       him.
       #Post#: 14157--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: Kerry Date: March 10, 2017, 8:48 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote]It's astounding that he was later appointed as a Federal
       Judge.
       In 2012, he was appointed as a judge to the Criminal Division of
       the Provincial Court of Alberta.[1][6] On June 26, 2015, despite
       the controversy over a 2014 sexual assault trial, Conservative
       Justice Minister Peter MacKay appointed Camp to the Federal
       Court of Canada.[/quote]
       It looks like the Tories were scrambling to fill as many posts
       as they could before the election.   They didn't seem to care
       that much about the controversial case.
       July 7, 2015 Ottawa Citizen
  HTML http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/the-gargoyle-harper-tories-unleash-torrent-of-patronage-appointments:
       The Conservative government made 98 patronage appointments over
       two days last month, filling up federal boards, tribunals and
       panels in advance of the October election.
       At least two failed Conservative candidates number among those
       receiving government jobs.
       On June 18 and 19, cabinet approved the long list of appointees
       to bodies such as the Immigration and Refugee Board, the
       Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the National Capital
       Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
       It also made 40 judicial appointments, elevating some sitting
       judges and adding new names to the bench at various levels of
       courts. Among them was Winnipeg lawyer Regan Thatcher, the son
       of former Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative cabinet minister
       Colin Thatcher, who was convicted of killing his wife in 1983.
       Gary Meschinshnick, the president of the conservative
       Saskatchewan Party, was named to the Queen’s Bench in the
       province.
       Denise Ghanam, who ran and lost for the federal Tories against
       New Democrat Joe Comartin in 2008, was named to the Windsor,
       Ont., port authority.
       Troy DeSouza, a Victoria lawyer who thrice ran unsuccessfully
       for the Conservatives, in 2006, 2008 and 2011, was named a
       part-time member of the Military Police Complaints Commission.
       A former colleague of Finance Minister Joe Oliver, investment
       banker Michael Mackasey, was named chairman of the Canada
       Development Investment Corporation.
       Former British Columbia cabinet minister, Olga Ilich, a member
       of the B.C. Liberal Party, was named chair of the Canadian
       Tourism Commission.
       The blizzard of appointments will, no doubt, have some recalling
       the preamble to the 1984 election campaign, when Prime Minister
       Pierre Trudeau approved a similar **** of patronage of mostly
       Liberal supporters.
       Left to pick up the mess after Trudeau resigned, Prime Minister
       John Turner claimed during the televised leaders debate that he
       had no option when he sat at the cabinet table when the
       appointments rubber stamped.
       Brian Mulroney shot back, “You had an option, sir. You could
       have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada,
       ‘” scoring a decisive blow in the debate.
       The list of recent appointments include five new members added
       to the National Capital Commission board shortly before a key
       meeting on the contentious memorial to the Victims of Communism,
       planned for a space near the Supreme Court of Canada.
       #Post#: 14158--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: Kerry Date: March 10, 2017, 8:55 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=paralambano link=topic=1185.msg14153#msg14153
       date=1489188108]
       This judge was appointed to criminal cases in 2012 having served
       as a lawyer and civil litigator dealing with oil contracts
       before that if Wikipedia is to be believed. If so, I wonder
       about the vetting process here.
       para  .  .  .
       [/quote]hard to say what the vetting process back in 2012 was;
       but it looks as if there may not have been any vetting done at
       all in 2015.
       #Post#: 14164--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: HOLLAND Date: March 10, 2017, 10:21 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Does Canada have a vetting process?  I understand that within
       Canadian governmental circles, there is sensitivity training to
       help the administration deal with Canada's multi-culture.  I
       suspect the judge was much like the American males who greeted
       and later detested the Women's Studies and activism that existed
       on American campuses in the 1970s.
       I found this sociological process fascinating back then.  I
       couldn't see why it made so many young men insecure . . .
       #Post#: 14183--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Judge Resigns Over **** Trial Comment
       By: paralambano Date: March 11, 2017, 5:12 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Holland -
       You can add the answer as to whether Canada has a vetting
       process for judges to the vast storehouse of things I don't have
       a clue about but if it doesn't, it looks like this one ought to
       be the poster-boy for getting a good one.
       para .  .  .  .
       *****************************************************
   DIR Next Page