The Osgoode Feminist Collective (OFC) Traces the Legacy of Misogyny in Canadian Courts
The OFC has been spending time in the abandoned corridors of pre-renovation Osgoode uncovering a litany of archival resources from our feminist past as Osgoode’s Women’s Caucus. In our first edition of this monthly series, we have chosen to highlight the pervasive sexist attitudes that continue to plague the Canadian court system, particularly in cases of sexual assault.
After flipping through the pages of political “zines,” books, pamphlets, and the like from 1973-1998, it was impossible to ignore that some of the deeply misogynistic and anti-feminist language critiqued in these historical materials is today still all too familiar.
While progress has been made through improvements to sexual assault legislation—from the re-introduction of the “rape-shield” laws in 1992 (providing strict guidelines for when and how previous sexual conduct can be used by a defendant at trial), to the inclusion of consent law specific to sexual assault—oppressive and often stereotypical assumptions about women linger as a deep-seated and ever-dangerous reminder of our patriarchal criminal justice system.
As mentioned in the 1971 Stop Rape zine, “The treatment a woman receives after she has been raped indicates clearly that she has stepped out of her place in reporting a rape and asking for justice [emphasis added]” (Paul H. Berghard, 12). Echoing this sentiment more than two decades later, Donna Johnson commented in a timely OFC archival piece, “Despite efforts of feminist lawyers to make visible the misogyny inherent in the law, individual women are entering the courts every day completely unprepared for the battle that is being waged there” (Out of Icy Water: Regina v Douglas X, 241).
As fellow law students of Osgoode Hall, the OFC seeks to foster discussion of the greater implications of sexist bias embedded in our legal community and how these prejudices interact with other areas of oppression. As a collective, we feel there is no position more sensitive than when the due process rights and overall safety of sexual assault survivors stand to be compromised by legal professionals themselves. Abhorrent remarks, such as those made by Federal Court Justice Robin Camp, serve as evidence of a greater institutional need for an intersectional and anti-oppressive understanding of feminism and justice. This understanding is something that even the Women’s Caucus itself has not taken into full account historically, as demonstrated by the content of our archival materials, which tend not to explore oppression beyond sexism. However, the post-second wave tides have changed and this anti-oppressive, intersectional stance serves as the driving force behind the OFC’s efforts today.
With the privilege and social currency bestowed upon us as future practitioners of the law, it is imperative that we adopt this kind of self-reflexive, feminist approach to our examinations of legal theory, Canadian politics, and social change.
– Broghan Masters, Rachel Berinstein, and Bonnie Greenaway, Osgoode Feminist Collective