Apology not enough, women's group wants changes after assault charge dismissed
A women's group wants changes in the Newfoundland and Labrador justice system to ensure there's no repeat of an injustice that happened in a Gander courtroom last week.
Charmaine Collins of Lewisporte was at provincial court on July 22 for the trial of a man charged with assaulting her.
However, a communications mix-up meant she was waiting at the victim's services office as requested, while in a nearby courtroom the judge dismissed the charges because she wasn't in the room to testify.
The Department of Justice has apologized to Collins and launched a review of the incident.
The St. John's Status of Women Council said that's a start, but not enough.
"It's a very, very serious mistake and those mistakes can sometimes put women's lives in jeopardy," Mary Shortall, a director with the council, told the St. John's Morning Show Friday.
"They actually cost women their lives, literally."
Shortall said it takes a lot of courage for women to come forward and report an alleged assault, adding that it's particularly hard for women who live in smaller communities, where they might face a significant backlash for speaking out.
After waiting nearly an hour to meet with the Crown attorney, Collins heard her name being paged over the courthouse's intercom. In the time it took to get to the courtroom, the case had been dismissed.
"The accused was walking out of the courtroom at the same time, and he just looked at me and grinned," Collins told CBC.
The Crown attorney apologized to Collins, and the Department of Justice later issued a public apology for "a case being dismissed before being heard on its merits."
"We offer our sincere apologies for the mistakes that happened. We are presently reviewing the matter internally to determine exactly how this transpired and if necessary, will change our processes to prevent such an incident from happening in the future," the apology said.
Troubling questions remain
The incident has left Shortall with a lot of troubling questions, including whether there's a double-standard at play.
The trial had been postponed the day before because the accused couldn't show up for court.
"Why wouldn't the judge stay the proceedings when the witness wasn't there?" she asked. "You have to ask yourself if it was a witness for the defence would the response from the judge have been the same thing?"
She said staying the charge or postponing the matter until the witness could be located would have left the option to try the case in the future, but dismissing the charges means it can't be retried.
"Apologies are one thing," Shortall said. "They have to put checks and balances in place to ensure something like this doesn't happen again."
Complainant no longer feels safe
Collins herself said she felt like "dirt" over the incident and no longer feels safe in her hometown where the man also lives.
She has since applied for a protection order against the man.
"I had no interaction with him before the incident, but I have three small children, and I live in Lewisporte, which is not a very big community, so now I'm fearful to go to the grocery store and that," she said.
