{"id":23912,"date":"2024-03-08T14:31:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T19:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=23912"},"modified":"2024-03-08T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T19:51:41","slug":"supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court of Canada affirms the dignity of sexual assault complainants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Ottawa, unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory,<\/strong> <strong>March 8, 2024 \u2013\u202f<\/strong>Today\u2019s Supreme Court of Canada\u2019s (SCC) decision<em> <\/em>affirms the importance of protecting survivors\u2019 equality and dignity rights in the trial process, says West Coast LEAF and LEAF.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its <a href=\"https:\/\/decisions.scc-csc.ca\/scc-csc\/scc-csc\/en\/item\/20315\/index.do\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decision<\/a> in <em>R v Kruk <\/em>and<em> R v Tsang<\/em>, the Court ruled against recognizing the proposed rule against \u201cungrounded common-sense assumptions\u201d as grounding an error of law. In doing so, a majority of the Court emphasized the unique purpose of the prohibition against myths and stereotypes about complainants in sexual assault cases. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This case addressed the important question of how courts approach the credibility analysis in sexual assault cases where a trial judge has relied on a common-sense assumption.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Survivors of sexual assault already face an increased risk of facing traumatic and intrusive questions during trials. West Coast LEAF and LEAF intervened to argue that the lack of clarity around the rule against \u201cungrounded common-sense assumptions\u201d increased this risk and created room for the use of stereotypes. This would create additional barriers to access to justice for survivors, who are more likely to be women, girls, trans, and non-binary people, often from intersecting marginalized communities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Supreme Court explicitly recognized the very real harms that complainants could experience from the adoption of this rule,\u201d says Megan Stephens, counsel for LEAF and West Coast LEAF.&nbsp;\u201cWe welcome the recognition that this could open a \u2018back door to prohibited twin-myth reasoning\u2019 as trial judges look to&nbsp;\u2018ground\u2019 their findings about a complainant\u2019s testimony.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its decision, the majority specifically acknowledged that \u201cthe prohibition against myths and stereotypes about sexual assault complainants carries with it a discrete history, purpose, and character.\u201d The Court held that a new rule against common-sense assumptions would expand this specific context beyond its proper scope. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00ab\u00a0The court has rejected that a new rule preventing assumptions is needed to create parity between accused and survivors in the trial process,\u00a0\u00bb says Humera Jabir, Staff Lawyer at West Coast LEAF. \u00ab\u00a0The court has affirmed that the existing rules prohibiting myths and stereotypes do not create an advantage for survivors but remedy the serious&nbsp;inequality and unfairness that many survivors continue to face.\u00a0\u00bb&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s decision will have significant impact for all sexual assault survivors going through the trial process,\u201d says Roxana Parsa, LEAF Staff Lawyer and co-counsel. \u201cThe decision signals a clear recognition of the ongoing harms perpetuated by the legal system against survivors of sexual violence.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Coast LEAF and LEAF are grateful to Megan Stephens for her <em>pro bono<\/em> representation before the Supreme Court, alongside staff lawyers and co-counsel Humera Jabir and Roxana Parsa.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For media inquiries contact:\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><br>Roxana Parsa <br>Staff Lawyer, LEAF<br><a href=\"mailto:r.parsa@leaf.ca\">r.parsa@leaf.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About West Coast LEAF<\/strong><br>West Coast LEAF is a non-profit organization formed in 1985, the year the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. West Coast LEAF\u2019s mandate is to use the law to create an equal and just society for all women and people who experience gender-based discrimination in BC. In collaboration with community, we use litigation, law reform, and public legal education to make change. For more information, visit<em> <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.westcoastleaf.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>westcoastleaf.org<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About LEAF<\/strong><br>The Women\u2019s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national, feminist, non-profit organization that works to advance the substantive equality rights of women, girls, trans and non-binary people in Canada through litigation, law reform and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 130 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.\u202f\u202f&nbsp;To find out more, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.leaf.ca<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23912","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court of Canada affirms the dignity of sexual assault complainants - LEAF<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court of Canada affirms the dignity of sexual assault complainants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In its decision in R v Kruk and R v Tsang, the Court ruled against recognizing the proposed rule against \u201cungrounded common-sense assumptions\u201d as grounding an error of law.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LEAF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-08T19:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Supreme_court_of_Canada_in_summer-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Supreme Court of Canada affirms the dignity of sexual assault complainants\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In its decision in R v Kruk and R v Tsang, the Court ruled against recognizing the proposed rule against \u201cungrounded common-sense assumptions\u201d as grounding an error of law.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Supreme_court_of_Canada_in_summer-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/supreme-court-of-canada-tsang-decision\/\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court of Canada affirms the dignity of sexual assault complainants - 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