The head of a local women’s shelter is expressing dismay over a recent Supreme Court decision that she says will put everyone, especially women and children, at a greater risk.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a federal law which will now allow individuals accused of violent crimes, such as homicide and sexual assault, to use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defence. The court said the law, which prevented the defence, was unconstitutional and violated the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Karen Hunter, the executive director of the Chatham-Kent Women’s Centre, called the ruling “preposterous.”
“When you’re taking drugs you’ve never taken before, that’s your own voluntary action to take that, to make that decision,” she said. “We have all have to be held responsible for our actions.”
Without the law, which was passed by Parliament in 1995, defendants can claim their actions were involuntary as a result of taking drugs or alcohol. As a result, they cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions.
Hunter said she is concerned about the possible ramifications for women and children, who are disproportionately affected by violent crime.
“[For] the most vulnerable individuals, often being women and children, what chance do they have for any sort of justice coming to them if they are the victim of sexual assault or intimate partner violence,” said Hunter. “The outcome, if it’s one of violence and danger, someone has to be held responsible and it’s certainly not the victim.”
While she conceded that she does not have a legal background, Hunter said the decision should be taken very seriously and reviewed.
“While they claim that this will not be something used often as a defence… clearly it has been,” she said. “There has to be some way that people are protected in our society from this kind of thing.”