The victim in a sexual assault trial who was asked why she couldn’t keep her knees together by a Calgary judge is speaking out about the incident.
The 24-year-old sexual assault complainant, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, told CTV Calgary on Monday that she’s glad she has found the courage to talk about what happened.
“It’s made me grow stronger as a person. It’s made me dig deeper beyond what people look at you, and I just feel more confident in myself,” she said.
The case began in 2011, when the woman accused Alex Wagner of raping her at a house party. During Wagner’s trial in 2014, the provincial judge presiding over the case, Justice Robin Camp, asked the woman why she couldn’t “just keep her knees together,” suggesting that she didn’t try hard enough to prevent the rape. He also told the woman, who was 19 and homeless at the time, that “pain and sex sometimes go together.”
Camp acquitted Wagner in 2014, calling him a more credible witness than the 19-year-old complainant. The Alberta Court of Appeal overturned Camp’s decision and a new trial was ordered.
In response to the public’s outrage over Camp’s remarks, the Canadian Judicial Council committee conducted an inquiry into the incident and have recommended that he be removed from the bench.
The woman told CTV Calgary how she felt when Camp made those remarks to her during the initial trial.
“I felt pretty belittled, ashamed of myself, just very hurt and uncomfortable with the comments and having to go to a hearing and re-tell the story and how his comments affected me,” she said. “Why would they let him stay?”
Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and the Canadian Judicial Council will decide whether Camp, who is now a federal judge, should lose his job. The executive director of Calgary Communities against Sexual Abuse, Danielle Aubry, told CTV Calgary on Monday that she thinks Camp should be removed from the bench.
“People feel like the criminal justice system has listened to the victim and to the broader picture of this kind of attitude and victim blaming,” Aubry said. “Rape culture does not belong in our criminal justice system.”
There have only been two other dismissal cases for judges in Canada before Camp’s. In both of those circumstances, the judges quit before they could be fired.
Camp apologized to the complainant at a disciplinary hearing in September. He said he wasn’t the good judge that he thought he was, and that “Canadians deserve more from their judges.” Despite the apology, the woman said she still would like to see the judge lose his job.
“I'm not concerned whether it's quitting or fired, as long as he's not a provincial judge,” she said.
The woman said the case has changed her for the better. She said she feels like an advocate for victims’ rights after two women, victims of sexual assault themselves, reached out to her during the trial to thank her for speaking out about her experience.
“I feel very grateful to be here right now and be able to be the voice for the unspoken,” she said.
Testimony in Wagner’s retrial wrapped up in November. He is expected to learn his fate on Jan. 31.
With a report from CTV Calgary’s Alesia Fieldberg
