The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld extensions of Canada’s Liberal rape laws four years ago. In a 6-3 ruling today, the court says the extended rules to further prevent a complainant from using sexual assault in the past in a trial are “constitutional in their entirety”. Rape shield laws were enacted four decades ago to prevent a complainant in a sexual assault case from using evidence of his or her sexual history to discredit him or her. The Penal Code states that evidence of a complainant’s previous sexual activity that is not related to the charges in question can only be admitted with the permission of a judge after a private hearing and cannot be used to conclude that the complainant is less credible or more likely to have agreed. In 2018, the Liberals extended the definition of what this information contains to add sexual communications, such as emails and videos, as well as documents about the complainant held by the accused. They also granted a complainant the right to attend a hearing with a judge and to be represented there by a lawyer. In today’s ruling, the majority of judges say that the right to a fair trial does not guarantee that the accused will receive “the most advantageous trial” and that “the ambush of the complainants with their own extremely private files” may be unfair and useless in search for the truth. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 30, 2022.
