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OPINIONS.

 

Both reached for the gun

Battered Woman Defence
in Canada under question

 

By Natalie Serafini,
Opinions Editor

he Battered Woman Defence

(BWD) has been officially
present in the Canadian justice
system since 1990, when the
Supreme Court of Canada first
granted it legitimacy as part of
self-defence. The judgement was
based on R. v. Lavallee, a case
in which Angelique Lavallee
was in an abusive common-law
relationship with Kevin Rust.
In their final altercation, Rust
threatened Lavallee, reportedly
saying “either you kill me or
I'll get you,” and at some point
during their fight handed her
a gun. Lavallee shot him in the
back of the head.

The defence’s place in the
justice system is now being
questioned by many Canadians
following the dubious case of
Nicole Doucet. Doucet was
recently set free on charges of
counselling to commit murder,
having been caught on tape

trying to hire an undercover
RCMP officer to kill her husband
in 2008.

The bulk of her defence
rested on the idea that her
estranged husband, Michaelf
Ryan, was violently aggressive
and sexually abusive, and that
she had pursued hiring a hit
man because she couldn’t get
police protection. The Supreme
Court dismissed Doucet's
acquittal, but also stayed all
criminal proceedings against
her. Why? Because the Supreme
Court concluded that “The abuse
which she suffered at the hands
of Ryan took an enormous toll
on her.”

In “Battered Woman
Syndrome Testimony in Canada:
Its Development and Lingering
Issues,” Kwong-Leung Tang
explains that BWD “speaks to
the mental state of the battered
women (e.g., sense of fear and
inability to leave their abusive
spouses), and it dispels the
misconceptions that jurors have
about battered women, giving
them a framework to understand
their unique situation and
perspective.” Battered Person
Syndrome—on which the

defence is based—is a physical
and psychological condition,
suffered by someone who has
been the victim of persistent
emotional, physical, or sexual
abuse.

The issue with Doucet’s
case is that Doucet may not have
been abused at all, and so the
defence doesn’t apply. According
to the National Post, Doucet and
Ryan were estranged and lived
180-km apart. Their relationship
was at times volatile, but records
show only one instance of
reported domestic abuse, on
November 23, 2007. On this
occasion, Doucet called police
saying Ryan was threatening to
burn her house down. She told
the cops that “he had never hit
her, but that he was verbally
aggressive and manipulative.”
Police found Ryan at his home,
two hours away from the site of
his alleged arson threats.

It's difficult to know, with so
little documentation of domestic
violence, how legitimate
Doucet’s claims of abuse
might be. They certainly sound
suspect, particularly given the
insinuations that Doucet took on
the role of victim following an

RCMP officer explaining what
accusations would lead officials
to arrest her husband. Without
this explanation of long-term
abuse, it’s also difficult to know
what Doucet’s motivations in
attempting murder for hire were.

Regardless of Doucet’s BWD
legitimacy, I’m not ready to
question the place of the defence
in the Canadian justice system.
Persistent abuse influences the
victim’s mental state, and it’s not
a stretch to believe such victims
will feel their life is in danger.
Those who are questioning
BWD seem to be under a
misconception of how the
Canadian justice system works.

Defence has to plant seeds
of doubt in the judge and jury.
They have to plead innocent,
or legitimize the crimes of the
defendant, enough so that the
accused will be acquitted. The
problem isn’t in the use of the
defence, particularly if the jury is
persuaded by it.

The issue lays in the work of
the prosecution. The standards
are much higher for prosecution,
as they should be. Prosecutors
must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that a conviction of the

accused is justified.

In the case of Doucet,
prosecution neither called the
RCMP officers who had been
monitoring Ryan and Doucet’s
relationship nor Ryan himself
to the witness stand. Because of
this, Doucet’s claims—and her
use of BWD—went essentially
uncontested. Doucet didn’t get
off because BWD has swung
too far in the other direction,
acquitting murderers and
attempted murderers who may
have never suffered abuse;
Doucet was set free because the
prosecution didn’t challenge the
use of the defence, as it should
have.

Of course, I haven’t been
privy to the evidence that the
prosecution has been, so my
criticisms are based on outside
observations through the
crudely carved glory hole of
media and speculation. Yet, if
there’s a chance that Doucet and
others have been set free because
the prosecution wasn’t strong
enough, the Battered Woman
Defence still has a justified place
in the Canadian justice system.

 

School of Thought: Falling back into school

 

By Natalie Serafini,
Opinions Editor

he semester isn’t quite

finished, and already we're
peering over the horizon to
anew semester; the back
to school-iest of semesters,
signaled by browning leaves
and Staples ads asserting that
it’s “the most wonderful time
of the year.” I’m heading into
my last semester at Douglas
College, which brings with it a
sense of dread and anticipation.
Anticipation, because I'll be
graduating and moving onto,
well, more school in a different
environment. Dread, because I'll
be hopping into the unknown
and abandoning the familiar.

When you think about
it, most people experience
excitement and trepidation with
the coming of a fresh semester:
whether anticipation at a clean
slate and new opportunities to
improve their GPA, or dread at
the thought of a new series of
syllabi, filled with assignments,
tests, and stress fuel. How
did Douglas College students
feel about the upcoming
semester? Was there excitement,
trepidation, or a combination of

the two? And what goals would
keep them on track in the fall
months?

With regards to goals for
the new semester, Rachel Ji
was focussed on getting “a
higher GPA and improving my
communication skills.”

A higher GPA proved
a consistent goal amongst
students, with Marisa,

Rachel, and Jessica aiming for
improvement there, as well.

Ji looked forward to meeting
“new classmates and [getting]
some more knowledge from
classmates and teachers.”

Similarly, Stefani Acevedo
and Navkiran Dhillon both
wanted to get better marks and
meet new people.

Marisa said, “I like fall
semester,” particularly compared
to the summer semester, and
Rachel agreed that in the fall
semester “] can actually focus.”

Dhillon dreaded the
number of night classes she had
coming up in the new semester.

Louise Zhou and Lona
Wang were hoping for “good
teachers” and good classes in
their next semester, anticipating
teachers that would be well-
suited to the course and would
be interesting and easy to

understand.

Wang also mentioned
hoping for great “friends and
classmates,” as well—especially
when it comes to group work,
she said, it helps to work with
someone you get along with or
already know.

A steady answer from
students was that they looked
forward to meeting new
people and learning from new
professors, and I have to agree
that’s one of the better parts
of starting up a new semester.
Finding cool people you
wouldn't have otherwise met
specifically because you both
decided to take that philosophy
course; bonding with people
over group work and struggling
to finish assignments together;
maybe being annoyed by a few
people in your classes, but sort
of loving the distraction of being
annoyed by them. I’ve formed
lasting friendships with some
of the classmates I’ve had, and
left others behind in That Class ]
Took That One Semester. Either
way, the suspense leading up to
a class and finding out if you'll
love, hate, or be indifferent to
the class and your classmates
is one of the best parts of anew
semester.