Content warning: sexual assault
On Friday, May 22, 2026, LEAF will appear before the Supreme Court of Canada in Jordan Bilinski v. His Majesty the King to advocate for clearer jury instructions in sexual assault cases.
In Bilinski, the accused removed his condom during intercourse, even though condom use was a condition to the complainant’s consent. A jury acquitted the accused. The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge had made a mistake in the instructions that he provided to the jury. Today, the Supreme Court will be considering how or whether jury instructions in sexual assault cases should change.
LEAF is not surprised that the information provided to the jury was faulty. The law of sexual assault is notoriously complex. It is difficult even for lawyers and judges to understand – even when they have been working in criminal law for years.
Today, LEAF will tell the Supreme Court that how courts communicate about sexual assault matters. For survivors of sexual assault, the trial process is often re-traumatizing. When jury instructions leave room for bias about sexual assault survivors to creep in, or when they are unclear or even wrong, it means that the jury did not have the proper information needed to come to a decision. When that happens, there needs to be a whole new trial – and another round of retraumatization for the survivor. Ensuring that sexual assault law is explained clearly and accurately to jurors is one meaningful way to protect survivors from the trauma of a retrial.
Clear statements about sexual assault in Canadian law help survivors in other ways too, such as when police and Crowns explain the law to someone who has just reported an experience of sexual violence.
“Whatever information survivors receive during these vulnerable encounters has to be accurate and accessible,” says Cee Strauss, Senior Staff Lawyer at LEAF. “This will impact whether survivors report, how they are treated when they do, and whether they feel the system meaningfully understands their experience.”
It is imperative for courts to communicate the law of consent clearly, accurately, and in a way that prevents jurors and others from allowing systemic bias to linger in the back of their minds. Clear jury instructions and statements of law that are free of bias will reduce the barriers that survivors experience when navigating the criminal legal system.
LEAF is grateful to be represented by Neha Chugh (Chugh Law) and Reakash Walters (Queen’s University) in this case.
LEAF’s interventions are guided, informed, and supported by case committees with relevant expertise. We are grateful to the case committee members for this intervention: Grace Ajele, Ula-Erin Chauvet, Daphne Gilbert, Saambavi Mano, Andie Marks, and Adriel Weaver.
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
About the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit and charity that works to advance the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada through litigation, law reform, and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has been involved in over 145 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To find out more, visit www.leaf.ca.
