The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) joins survivors of sexual violence and gender-based violence in deep concern in the wake of yesterday’s devastating ruling. Five former members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey team have been found not guilty of sexual assault, but the impact of this case will be felt far beyond the courtroom.
The labour movement does not pretend that justice is blind. This verdict confirms what survivors already know: our legal system isn’t built to deliver justice for them; it’s built to protect power. And more often than not, it succeeds.
This case revealed the cracks in how sexual violence is addressed in this country, not just in court but in our cultural narratives around masculinity, power, coercion, and what passes for “consent”. It is no coincidence that men in this case filmed a so-called “consent-video”, turning a legal principle into a performance. This was not consent, it was coercion.
That is why we joined the call for the “Consent Awareness Week Act” to pass. But it can’t end there. Consent cannot be a check box, especially in a system that shifts the burden onto survivors to prove the impossible: that they were not complicit in their own assault. If we reduce sexual violence to a question of whether the victim said “yes” we will never confront deeper truth about power, pressure, and patriarchy that shape these violent acts.
This case also exposes the racism entrenched in our justice system. When Black and racialized men are accused, trials move faster, public judgement is harsher, and convictions come down harder. Look at the cases of Dafonte Miller or Abdirahman Abdi. And if the survivor had been a Black or racialized woman, would there even have been a trial? Would her testimony have been taken seriously? Or would she like so many before her, have been painted as angry, promiscuous, or unreliable? The justice system fails survivors, but it fails them differently, and it fails them through a lens of systemic racism.
The same voices demanding tougher sentences and stricter bail for marginalized people are now demanding leniency, smearing the survivor, and demanding silence. That is not justice.
Let’s also be clear: the presence of a woman judge does not erase patriarchy embedded in the justice system. Women in male dominated institutions are often forced to conform, to preform, and uphold the status quo just to survive.
The OFL is calling for more than awareness. We demand survivor informed judicial reform. We demand trauma informed process that treat survivors with dignity. We demand accountability in the courts, in sports, in education, and in our culture. We demand a future where no survivor must live through what E.M. has endured.
To survivors: We see you, we believe you, and we will never stop fighting for you.
Resources:
Statistics: Sexual Violence in Canada
What is consent?
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE GOES TO WORK EVERY DAY: A BARGAINING GUIDE
cj/COPE343
