THE BANALIZATION
OF TORTURE: DOES
LANGUAGE MATTER?
Elizabeth Sheehy
R V WHYNOT (STAFFORD) (NSCA 1983)
Trial Evidence
 Billy Stafford fired guns at her head,
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missing by inches
Knocked her unconscious
Raped her when she had just given
birth and undergone a hysterectomy
Put a leash around her neck and
forced her to have intercourse with a
dog
Made her watch as he force fed her
toddler his own vomit
CA summary of 17 days of evidence
R V KONDEJEWSKI (MANITOBA QB 1998)
Defence evidence
 Kim slapped, punched, kicked, raped,
had gun “dry-fired” at her head,
humiliated constantly as “fat” “ugly”,
“lazy”:“not worth her rations”
 Brain-washed into attempting suicide
3x “for the good of the family”
 Forced to participate in pornographic
photos and intercourse with another
man
Crown response
R V GETKATE (ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT
1998)
Testimony
 Maury had dragged Lilian upstairs
by the hair, held her over the top
of the stairs, threatening to drop
her, fired guns at her after
spinning the chamber, pinned her
to the floor with his knee in her
back, and woke her in the night
with his hands of her throat,
telling her that he knew how to
kill her by pressing the right
spots.
Psychiatric expert’s interpretation
 “She had a difficult relationship
with her husband…he was
demanding and dominating …and
she suffered some physical abuse,
mostly by shaking and grabbing”
”
R V GETKATE (ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT
1998)
Testimony
Crown description
 Maury raped her with a dildo that he
had first made her insert in his anus,
without cleaning it; he seemed to get
more pleasure if she struggled; he
raped her in front of her daughter’s
bedroom door, telling her “he was
going to fuck her like a dog”
 Maury raped her on the ledge of the
5th floor of a parking garage, as she
faced down
 “Were you the one putting on the
lacy nightgown? The crotch-less
panties? The garter belt?”
 “I suggest to you that you wanted it
that night…if you wanted to avoid it
you could have…stayed downstairs”
ABORIGINAL WOMEN
Testimony
 Gladys
Heavenfire: “She had
bruises on her cheeks, on her
forehead, and black eyes, had this
every time I saw her”
 Donelda Kay: “She lost her sense
of self …her identity as a result
of being so severely hurt. Just
knowing the history, I would
predict she’d be dead by now”
Crown description
 Heavenfire:
 Kay: “You will hear none of the
Crown witnesses testify that they
saw [her] being attacked…You
will not hear that she was being
beaten…You will not hear that
she seemed afraid”
ABORIGINAL WOMEN
Testimony
 Denise Robin Rain: “He was throwing
her around, just everywhere, just
throwing her into walls and being real
brutal to her…Her neck kept
snapping back and the noise was
really loud”
 Jamie Tanis Gladue: Reuben Beaver
had been convicted of assaulting her
while she was pregnant; observed
pushing him away, “leave me alone”,
bruised and threatened
Crown description
 Rain:
“She was ready to
participate in this climate of
violence…I don’t buy [] that
she’s just cowarding in the
corner…she takes an aggressive
position…
 Gladue: “Not a real battered
woman or fearful wife”
JOHN LOCKE 1697:
“He who attempts to get another Man
into his Absolute Power, does thereby
put himself into a State of War with
him; it being understood as a
Declaration of a Design upon his Life”
R V MARGARET ANN MALOTT (ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT 1991)
 Demanded to know everything about her so he could “work on her
weakest parts”; accused her of withholding information about herself
 Timed her errands, woke her in the night chanting over a candle and
telling her “I can sense your next move”
 Margaret submitted to lie detector test, hypnotist and drug injection of
speed to “prove” her fidelity to him
R V MARGARET ANN MALOTT (ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT 1991)
 “Pig, slut, bitch. He never used her name most of the time.”
not allowed to touch her body—no hugs, no kisses;
Paul was teaching them “survival”: “they’ve got to grow up tough. Let them
go.”
: pinched and twisted her nipples until she fell to
the floor in pain, forced her to stay on top of him all night, inserted objects
in her vagina, penetrated her anally so violently she could not walk, locked
her in closets and threw matches in at her, tied her naked to beds, held
pillows over her face to the point of asphyxiation, pressed points on her
neck until she passed out; handcuffed and whipped her; made her wear a
bridle
TORTURE
: “Torture [is] the deliberate, systematic, or
wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering … to force another person
to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason.”
defines psychological torture as 1) enforced
isolation; 2) monopolization of perception (e.g., the induction of altered
states of consciousness through the administration of drugs and hypnosis);
3) induced debility –exhaustion (e.g., sleep deprivation); 4) threats; 5)
occasional indulgences; 6) demonstrating “omnipotence”; 7) degradation;
and 8) enforcing trivial demands
THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL AND INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR
PUNISHMENT
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture"
means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical
or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes
as obtaining from him or a third person information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has
committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating
or coercing him or a third person,
, when such pain or suffering is inflicted
by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of
a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
GENERAL COMMENT NO 2, PARA 18
under the Convention for consenting to or acquiescing in such impermissible acts. Since
the failure of the State to exercise due diligence to intervene to stop, sanction and
provide remedies to victims of torture facilitates and enables non-State actors to
commit acts impermissible under the Convention with impunity, the State’s indifference
or inaction provides a form of encouragement and/or de facto permission
WHY NAME TORTURE?
 Frances Cobbe 1878 “Wife-beating is the mere preliminary canter
before the race…Wife-beating in process of time, and in numberless
cases, advances to Wife-torture, and the Wife-torture usually ends in
Wife-maiming,Wife-blinding, or Wife-murder”
 State duties to prohibit, investigate, prosecute, prevent, respond to
victims’ recovery needs
THE CHALLENGE OF NAMING TORTURE
 Frances Cobbe argued that
 Line-drawing: when does battering/coercive control become torture?
 Naming: Classic vs “Non-State Torture”;Wife Torture; Misogynistic Torture?
 Re-banalization at risk?
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
 Research in states that have criminalized and/or otherwise responded
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to this form of torture
We need research with women, counsellors and other health care
providers to understand women’s experience of torture—how it differs
and is the same as that of men who experience state torture, the forms
and consequences of torture in order to respond to women’s needs
Assessment of prevention and denunciation strategies
Educational and transformational campaigns
See
R V PAXTON (FEBRUARY 2012)
 Convicted of aggravated assault and sexual assault for the prolonged
torture of room-mate
 Victim starved, permanently disfigured, maimed, brain damaged—
”forever changed”
 Crown used the narrative of torture to prosecute the case
COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE (CAT)
GENEVA MAY 2012
 Ms. Sveaass said that she would like further information on how
recommendations made by treaty bodies were followed up and
coordinated by the State party [Canada].
 Drawing the State party’s attention to general comment No. 2, she
asked whether it would consider amending its legislation to include acts
of torture committed by non-State actors.
COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE (CAT)
GENEVA MAY 2012
 Canada (Mr Kessler) to CAT: “
 Ms. Gaer said that she had been disappointed by the delegation’s remark in
the opening statement that the matter of violence against women would be
better addressed elsewhere, especially in the light of the important work
done by Canada in that area. During the first 12 years of the Committee’s
existence, women had in fact been invisible. There had been no discussion of
gender-based torture involving rape, domestic violence and trafficking in
persons. The first step towards preventing further human rights violations
must be to put an end to such invisibility.