Handling of sexual assault complaints must change

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/02/2024 (579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week, London, Ont.’s police chief showed remarkable integrity when he apologized to a sexual assault victim for his department’s handling of a sexual assault case.

One wonders if Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth is paying attention.

LPS Chief Thai Truong apologized for the amount of time it took for charges of sexual assault to be laid against five members of the 2018 junior hockey team. Police in London investigated the complaint initially in June of 2018 but closed the case in 2019 with no charges. After Hockey Canada settled a lawsuit for $3.5 million, the case was reopened in 2022.

Is it time for a similar reckoning in Winnipeg? Given the treatment of victims who complained about Peter Nygard in the past and the police treatment of that case, perhaps now is a good time for the NDP government to conduct an internal review into the historical handling of sexual assault cases, particularly when Indigenous women are the victims. (This might just take the Winnipeg police chief’s attention away from his concern about how the media covers civil suits against the police service.)

This should include not only an examination of the clear-by-charge rate by police, but also the clear-by-conviction rate by the Crown, because the justice department makes the final decision on whether to proceed with the case. It’s time to determine just how deeply ingrained institutional racist and sexist myths in Manitoba’s justice system are.

This is one story told from a frustrated woman who tried to find justice. She says that when she was 16 and living in the inner-city north end of Winnipeg, she was lured in a man’s home and sexually assaulted. She didn’t report it to police because she knew she wouldn’t be believed. She simply had no faith in the criminal justice system. She also learned that four of her friends were raped by the same man. They too remained silent.

Twenty years later, now feeling that there should be consequences for the crime, she told her story to the police and the police constable believed her. The officer began an investigation and then contacted the other women who had also been raped, but they were still too afraid to go public with their ordeal.

And for good reason, because when the police officer filed the evidence with the Crown Attorney, the Crown decided, after a long delay, to not lay charges due to not being confident of a conviction. In the meantime, it became clear that police knew about this man and his sexual assaults on even more women, including his own children.

This man has been given immunity to continue to assault women and girls in the north end because there’s limited confidence in the justice system. When someone does show the courage to come forward, there seems to be limited interest from the Crown. The Crown Attorney’s office should consider cases such as this in the public interest to proceed.

Of course, this isn’t surprising. Only about six per cent of sexual assault crimes get reported in Winnipeg. And even less get cleared with a conviction. Why would any thinking woman bother to go to the police?

But when it seems like there are open secrets of men who have been victimizing women, it’s time to examine why more hasn’t been done. In most cases the system, social services or another part of the state is aware of those crimes, but the existing system is broken. It is unable or unwilling to proceed with charges that might result in a conviction.

The whispers surrounded Peter Nygard for years. He’s only now been found guilty of some of his crimes. He was finally charged in 2023 for a 1993 sexual assault in Winnipeg, after police did not pursue charges in 2020.

Like the London police, Winnipeg police dropped the ball. Women are still waiting for their apology from Danny Smyth and a system change in the Crown Attorney’s office.

Shannon Sampert is a lecturer at both the University of Manitoba and Red River College Polytech and a media consultant. She is the former oped editor for the Winnipeg Free Press. Sel Burrows is an inner-city activist, coordinator of the Point Powerline, a crime prevention volunteer organization. He is a member of the Order of Manitoba.