Inquiry into Justice Robin Camp’s conduct begins Tuesday, Sept. 6
For immediate release – Sept. 2, 2016
VANCOUVER – Next week, West Coast LEAF will be in Calgary at the judicial inquiry into the conduct of
Justice Robin Camp. The Canadian Judicial Council is investigating a complaint brought by the Attorney
General of Alberta that calls for Justice Camp’s removal from the office of Federal Court judge for
remarks he made while presiding over a 2014 sexual assault trial in Alberta.
During the trial, Justice Camp asked the complainant, an Indigenous woman who was 19 years old and
homeless at the time, “Why couldn't you just keep your knees together?” He also referred to her
repeatedly as “the accused,” and remarked that “sex and pain sometimes go together […] that’s not
necessarily a bad thing,” and that “young wom[e]n want to have sex, particularly if they are drunk.”
Justice Camp was also dismissive of reforms made to the Criminal Code to better protect sexual assault
complainants from being subject to unnecessarily invasive questioning and flawed assumptions about
their behaviour.
West Coast LEAF is intervening in the inquiry in coalition with the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre (Avalon),
Ending Violence Association of British Columbia (EVA BC), the Institute for the Advancement of
Aboriginal Women (IAAW), Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children
(METRAC), and Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund Association (LEAF). The coalition’s arguments
highlight the impact of Justice Camp’s behaviour on survivors of sexual assault and on public attitudes
about sexual assault, and the need for the Inquiry’s work to properly consider these impacts in
reviewing his conduct.
The hearing will continue until Sept. 9.
Read more about West Coast LEAF’s involvement in this case on our website:
http://www.westcoastleaf.org/our-work/matter-inquiry-pursuant-section-631-judges-act-regardinghon-justice-robin-camp-2016/.
-30For media inquiries, contact:
Raji Mangat
Director of Litigation, West Coast LEAF
(604) 684.8772 ext. 218 (direct to mobile phone)
litigation@westcoastleaf.org
Kasari Govender
Executive Director, West Coast LEAF
(604) 684.8772 ext. 211 (direct to mobile phone)
exec@westcoastleaf.org
About West Coast LEAF:
West Coast LEAF is a non-profit organization formed in 1985, the year the equality guarantees of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. West Coast LEAF’s mission is to achieve
equality by changing historic patterns of discrimination against women through BC-based equality rights
litigation, law reform and public legal education. For more information about West Coast LEAF, visit
http://www.westcoastleaf.org.