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'This Is Barbaric': Jian Ghomeshi Accuser Urges for Sexual Assault Reform

After a judge declined to charge the Canadian radio host on multiple counts of sexual assault, employing victim-blaming rhetoric in the process, one woman is trying to change the way violence against women is adjudicated.
Photo by Carlos Osorio/Getty

Jian Ghomeshi, a former radio host who is widely known for his once-popular show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was acquitted Thursday of four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking. Despite the fact that more than 20 women have come forward to accuse the television and on-air personality of sexual violence since he was fired for the allegations in 2014, the court proceedings focused on forcing his victims into the position of defending their character and behavior, hardly calling Ghomeshi's alleged actions into question.

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Following a month of deliberation, Justice William B. Horkins sent down a chilling verdict against the victims and in favor of Ghomeshi. In his decision, Horkins painted each of Ghomeshi's accusers as unreliable based on the holes the defense was able to poke in each of their testimonies: Ghomeshi's skilled lawyer, Marie Henein, pulled out cordial emails and other correspondence between the victims and her client that continued after the alleged assaults. Why would a victim continue to talk to the man who assaulted them? Henein skewered the complainants for misremembering certain details, for not being consistent between their media interviews and police statements. In turn, Horkins, in his decision, pointed to the fact that Ghomeshi's accusers didn't behave exactly the way a victim of sexual assault might and are therefore untrustworthy.

"There is no other evidence to look to determine the truth," Horkins wrote in his decision. "There is no tangible evidence. There is no DNA. There is no 'smoking gun'. There is only the sworn evidence of each complainant, standing on its own, to be measured against a very exacting standard of proof. This highlights the importance of the assessment of the credibility and the reliability and the overall quality, of that evidence."

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Following the controversial trial, one woman who testified against Ghomeshi is now speaking out again. This time, she's calling for reform of the Canadian justice system and its handling of sexual assault cases. The woman, who is only identified as L.R., started ComingForward.ca, a website where sexual assault survivors can share their stories and have access to the resources they need to prepare to bring those stories to court. L.R. says it's something she wished she'd had before she had to take the stand.

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"Coming Forward was born right after the verdict," she told Broadly. "I launched it on verdict day, actually." While the site is still in its infancy, she hopes that it can be a resource and a discussion forum for those in the position she found herself in. "When I was going through [the trial], I had no one to talk to," she said. She's also working with a lawyer to put together a guide that explains what it's actually like to go through the cross-examination process in court. "I don't think I could even begin to explain how unprepared I was," she explained. "I wasn't expecting the manner in which the judge read his judgment. I didn't realize how badly I was going to be attacked. Everyone was shocked by how he was so condescending. He basically called us manipulative liars."

L.R.'s accusations against Ghomeshi dated back to two separate encounters in December 2002 and January 2003. She had met the minor celebrity at a CBC Christmas party where she was working as a server, according to court documents. That night, the two flirted, and he invited her to attend a future taping of his show. She accepted the invitation, and after the show, the two went out for drinks with Ghomeshi's coworkers. Ghomeshi then drove her to her car, which is when the alleged assault occurred: They kissed, and Ghomeshi pulled her hair, hard. She walked away from the encounter wondering if he had intended to hurt her so badly. They met up another time and he allegedly assaulted her again, this time at his house, where she claims he punched her "in the head several times and pulled her to her knees."

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I didn't realize how badly I was going to be attacked. He basically called us manipulative liars.

In court, the defense dragged her for the discrepancies in her story, describing it as an "evolving set of facts": Was she wearing hair extensions when her hair was pulled, or wasn't she? Was she "thrown" to the ground, or "pulled"? And why did she send him flirtatious emails after?

Judge Horkins's decision also made a not-so-subtle claim that Ghomeshi's accusers only came forward for attention or fame, which is an insult that sexual assault victims of high-profile men endure too often. "Each one chose not to make a complaint to the authorities until years after the fact. Each one came forward in 2014 in the wake of, or in the midst of, the extensive publicity surrounding the very public termination of Mr. Ghomeshi at the CBC. Each complainant chose to come forward to the media first and then subsequently gave sworn video-recorded statements to the police. Each complainant was aware of Mr. Ghomeshi and his celebrity status prior to meeting him. Each was a fan to some greater or lesser extent," the judge wrote.

L.R. told Broadly that she didn't think anyone would care about her sexual assault story until she saw the police chief call for Gian Ghomeshi's alleged victims to come forward when the scandal first broke in 2014. Even then she was hesitant to go to the authorities, which is not uncommon. Less than one in ten sexual assault victims report the crime to the police.

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Unfortunately, L.R.'s fears of not being believed were proven true. "My allegations against [Jian Ghomeshi] were never denied," she said over the phone. "[His lawyer's] defense strategy was to test if I could remember the details of my assault. If I didn't remember those the way they thought I should remember them, I must not be telling the truth. But I told the truth."

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While an obviously effective strategy to provoke "reasonable doubt," experts have long understood that, after traumas like these, victims don't often remember exactly what happened. It's also worth pointing out again that the events in question happened over a decade prior. "We have a societal expectation that both the victim of a major crime and any witnesses to that crime ought to be able to remember with perfect clarity exactly what happened," Rebecca Campbell, a psychologist at Michigan State University who studies sexual assault, told the Washington Post. "It is not an expectation that has any scientific merit." But because this wasn't a jury trial (Ghomeshi waived his right to a jury), no expert witnesses were brought in to explain this. The women who accused Ghomeshi of assault were left to flounder on the stand on their own as they were routinely eviscerated by his lawyer.

Another troubling aspect of how sexual assault is handled in Canadian courts is the fact that victims themselves aren't represented by a lawyer. In criminal cases, Crown attorneys are appointed as counsel, but they aren't the victim's lawyer; they represent the state. Toronto criminal defense lawyer David Butt puts it this way: "I have the deepest respect for Crown attorneys, but they don't act for complainants and they will be the first ones to tell you that. So you have a justice system where the defense, a vigorous advocate, is totally dedicated to the defense interest. The community has a vigorous advocate totally dedicated to the community's interest. Who acts for the victim? Nobody."

L.R. puts it even more bluntly. "My 'lawyers' weren't allowed to speak in court. They were just my advisors," she said. "Victims do not get represented in court; you're alone. Jian Ghomeshi had his lawyer, but we had nothing. You're left alone. Completely and absolutely alone. It's an uneven playing field. Everything is stacked against you, from the minute [you] walk in there."

While L.R. did not receive justice, or by many standards a fair trial, she's determined to work to help change Canada's legal system so victims of sexual assault don't have to continue to go through what she did. She said that she's even thinking of lifting the publication ban on her name next week. "I plan on helping to get something changed," she said. "I don't know how long it's going to take me, but that's my mission, because this is barbaric. This can't go on.

"How anyone report a sexual assault if they're going to be attacked?" she added. "There's no justice in it."