Sexual Assault | 146 absolutions for five years in Quebec

The story of Simon Houle, this engineer convicted of sexual assault and absolved by a judge to protect his career, is far from unique in Quebec. Since 2017, more than 20 individuals convicted of sexual assault have been able to walk away without a criminal record each year.

Vincent Larin
The Press

Thus, no less than 146 criminal cases with at least one count of offense relating to sexual assault have resulted in a conditional or unconditional discharge over the past five years, show figures from the Ministry of Justice (MJQ) obtained by the through the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.

As an indication, between 932 and 1447 cases with at least one count of sexual assault were closed each year in Quebec between 2017 and 2020, indicate data also obtained from the MJQ, which does not however cover the years 2021 and 2022.

Without being a very frequent conclusion, the conditional or unconditional discharge of an aggressor nevertheless occurs several times each year in the province’s courthouses.

“Horrible, what they live”

Far from being surprised by these figures, the co-organizer of the Quebec movement against sexual violence, Mélanie Lemay, sees in them additional proof of the failure of the judicial system to deal with cases of sexual assault.

She also criticizes Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette for implying that Simon Houle’s case was isolated by saying he was “shocked” by the case.

“The fact that he said he was in shock, it was hypocritical. It was he who failed to hear the voices of the victims. You can’t blame a judge for applying his code of justice. It is the tree that hides the forest. And this is the very reason for the movement #weatherto have spaces where it is possible to denounce, to diversify the spaces where it is possible to be heard”, she explains in an interview.

“And we are not talking about the impact and the violence for a victim to see a judge declare his attacker not guilty or give him a discharge, even conditional. It’s horrible, what they’re going through, the feeling of injustice,” adds Mélanie Lemay.

Support the victims

This is also why some organizations that support victims of sexual assault, such as the Centers for assistance to victims of criminal acts (CAVAC), try to prepare them for any eventuality.

“The important thing is not to just put all the expectations [dans] the end of the legal process. [Car] sometimes, the sentence does not live up to their expectations, even if it is not an absolution,” explains the Communications Coordinator of the CAVAC Network, Marie-Christine Villeneuve.

Hence the importance of working with the victim “to focus on the aspects of their life that they can control to lead them to regain power”, she adds.

Fewer and fewer absolutions?

According to Hugues Parent, professor of criminal law at the University of Montreal, the number of absolutions granted at the end of a trial for sexual assaults is, however, expected to decrease over the years until it is reserved for cases where the acts committed are more “superficial”.

“It’s something that will happen. I think the collective perception of sexual assault, but also the number of sexual assaults, is important enough to bring about a more severe response from the courts,” he says.

The absolution for a case of sexual assault is not, however, destined to disappear, he believes. According to him, judges must be able to have the full range of possible sentences at their disposal, in order to take into account the reality of each case.

“A young person who makes a mistake is not the same as inserting fingers into the vagina of someone who is dozing and intoxicated. Prohibiting absolution is not the solution, because there will always be cases that will call for this kind of sanction,” he explains.

With William Leclerc