Feminist Research Education Development and Action Centre Bill C-46 Index

The FREDA Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children The Rape-Shield Law: A Chronology of Developments Friday, February 9, 2001: Brian Mills is found not guilty of sex offences. Court of Queen's Bench Justice Paul Belzil rules that the 12-year-old girl Mills was accused of assaulting often changed her assault claims and later admitted to inventing a false story. Information revealed before Bill C-46 became law suggested that the complainant had a history of mental problems. Mills' lawyer, Dennis Edney stated: "Under Bill C-46 you get nothing. It was a cowardly response by the Supreme Court of Canada to public pressure and special interest groups." [See November 25, 1999 & September 18, 1997, below.] Friday, November 10, 2000: Steve Ewanchuk, sentenced to one year in jail on October 20 (see below), is granted bail while appealing his sentence. Ewanchuk, convicted six times of sexual offences, was deemed a low risk to re-offend by Justice Ronald Berger of the Alberta Court of Appeal. Judge Berger agreed with defence lawyer Brian Beresh that Ewanchuk would suffer unnecessary hardship if detained in custody. Friday, October 20, 2000: Steve Ewanchuk, earlier convicted of sexual assault is sentenced to one year in jail. The "no means no" sexual assault case gained national attention last year when Ewanchuk's acquittal was appealed then the appeal dismissed by Justice John McClung of the Alberta Court of Appeal. The dismissal was overturned in the Supreme Court of Canada last year by Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé. Today, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice John Moore sentenced Ewanchuk to one year in jail, prohibited him from owning weapons for 10 years, and ordered him to pay a victim fine surcharge of $100. Ewanchuk was convicted of three rapes in the 1970s, a sex assault in 1989 and a prostitution-related offence in 1990. [See June 28, 1999, below.] Thursday, October 12, 2000: Andrew Scott Darrach loses his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled 9-0 today that all the rape-shield provisions of the Criminal Code are constitutional. Darrach had claimed that the legal guidelines for the inadmissibility of evidence of a complainant's sexual past in sexual-assault cases placed an undue burden on the defendant. [See February 23, 2000, below.] Tuesday, June 20, 2000: The controversial February 1999 BC Supreme Court decision that stayed 76 of 78 sexual assault charges by former patients against retired Campbell River doctor Mark Walter Stewart has been overturned on appeal. A new trial date will be set for the 56-year-old Stewart who in 1997 was suspended indefinitely by the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons. [See February 19, 1999, below.] Wednesday, February 23, 2000: The Supreme Court of Canada hears an appeal today by Andrew Scott Darrach who is claiming that because of the rape-shield law, he was wrongly jailed for nine months. In his appeal, Darrach claims that if he had been permitted to use as evidence the past sexual relationship between himself and the woman he was found guilty of sexually assaulting, he would not have been charged. The incident occurred on November 6, 1992, and Darrach was convicted and sentenced to a nine-month jail term in 1994. [Darrach would lose his appeal on October 12, 2000 - see above.] Thursday, November 25, 1999: The Supreme Court of Canada upholds Bill C-46, protecting therapeutic records of sexual assault complainants from defence lawyers. The court upheld the current law 7 to 1. The 1997 law was contested in the case of Brian Mills from Edmonton, accused in the 1995 sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. On February 12, 1998, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in the Mills case after a ruling on September 18, 1997 by Edmonton Judge Paul Belzil that by not allowing the accused access to the counselling and medical records of his accuser, his right to a fair trial may be in jeopardy. [Mills is later found not guilty. See February 9, 2001, above & September 18, 1997, below.] Monday, June 28, 1999: Steve Ewanchuk, 50, an Alberta man convicted of sexual assault has lost his final attempt for a new trial. Justice John Moore, in refusing to alter an earlier decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, ordered Ewanchuk's case to proceed to sentencing and a dangerous offender application. On May 25, 1999, the Supreme Court dismissed Ewanchuk's appeal for a re-hearing and referred the case back to Alberta for sentencing. In a decision in February 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that Ewanchuk's defence of "implied consent" has no standing in Canadian Law, and that "no means no." [Ewanchuk would be sentenced to one year in jail on October 20, 2000 - see above.] Friday, February 19, 1999: A judge in Nanaimo, BC, stayed 76 of 78 sex-offence charges against former Campbell River doctor Mark Walter Stewart after Crown counsel claimed that disclosure of counselling records could lead some of the complainants to suicide. The charges involving 64 women, ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, to sexual exploitation, and sexual interference. On application by defence to have medical and counselling records of 63 of the 64 complainants entered into evidence, the judge stayed the charges, claiming that giving the accused access to the records could endanger the lives of some of the complainants. A Vancouver lawyer has been retained to investigate the case. [This decision would be overturned on appeal June 20, 2000, and a new trial ordered - see above.] Friday October 31, 1997: Justice Paul Belzil of Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench claims that Bill C-46 violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Thursday October 2, 1997: Ruling by Madam Justice Sandra Chapnik of the Ontario Court's General Division in the case of Dr. Joseph Lee, a Toronto obstetrician, who is facing two charges of sexual assault. Chapnik rules that the provisions of Bill C-46 violate the accused's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Lee sought the medical, therapeutic, and psychiatric records of a former patient, whose allegations led to his facing two charges of sexual assault. Thursday September 18, 1997: Ruling by Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Paul Belzil in the case of Brian Mills 22, who is accused of sexually assaulting an 12-year-old girl two years ago. Belzil states that by not allowing the accused access to the counselling and medical records of his accuser, his right to a fair trial may be in jeopardy. [Mills is later found not guilty. See November 25, 1999 & February 9, 2001, above.] May 12, 1997: Bill C-46 becomes law. April 25, 1997: Bill C-46 passed by Senate. June 1996: Bill C-46 first introduced. For more information: "Striking the Balance in Sexual Assault Trials", by Nicole Baer, Department of Justice, Canada.