A Crown prosecutor lambastes the Trudeau government for opening the door in a recent law to house jail for sex offenders. A man who penetrated a woman without her consent, and who blames the #metoo movement, benefited Monday after an eight-year judicial “marathon”.
“Right now, Justin Trudeau and [le ministre de la Justice] David Lametti probably have to answer to the victims of sexual assault, ”claimed after the hearing the Crown prosecutor Me Alexis Dinelle.
“I cannot remain silent in the face of this situation,” said the experienced prosecutor, who said he was worried about this “backtracking” in terms of the sentence imposed on sexual aggressors. Such an exit from a prosecutor is extremely rare.
Despite a violent sexual assault, Jonathan Gravel avoided jail time on Monday. Judge David Cimon instead sentenced him to 20 months in the community (suspended sentence) because of his rehabilitation and his low risk of recidivism. The 42-year-old man from West Montreal penetrated a woman in the anus without warning in 2014.
The assailant continued despite the victim’s cries of refusal and her attempts to get out of the grip by scratching him with her fingernails. In his eyes, the woman had consented to anal penetration since she had just consented to vaginal intercourse. He said he “felt” that she consented to it and thought anyway “to be there” in their sexual relationship, since “the door was open”.
“Sex is sex”, he had summed up to the investigator. The judge thus found him guilty in 2018 at the end of his trial, recalling that consent must be obtained at all times during a sexual relationship. He has since been on appeal.
“The gestures are serious. The offender wanted to satisfy a sexual urge by not caring at all about the victim, nor about his unequivocal refusal, ”concluded Judge David Cimon on Monday.
Until last November, a judge could not impose a sentence of house arrest for a sexual assault. For such a crime, jail time was the norm, and sentences ranged from 12 to 20 months for assaults similar to this one.
However, without much fanfare, the Trudeau government’s Bill C-5 allowed for community imprisonment for sexual assault. The purpose of this major piece of legislation was specifically to tackle “the overrepresentation of Indigenous, Black or marginalized Canadians in the criminal justice system” by abolishing many Criminal Code minimum sentences, including firearms.
This law was not intended to allow “Jonathan Gravel, a white man, to get away with a suspended sentence”, insists Me Dinelle, who recalls that the reprieve had not been possible for 15 years.
“What is the message sent to victims of sexual assault more than five years after the #metoo movement? I have the impression that now, we are going backwards, and we are going to allow conditional sentences again for sexual aggressors who have gone to trial. There will be accountability somewhere, ”maintains Me Dinelle.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Me Alexis Dinelle, Crown Attorney
Moreover, in one of his many requests, Jonathan Gravel complained of having been “condemned in advance” because of the “social and cultural context at the time of the #metoo movement”. He added that the victim had been “believed in advance”. Allegations rejected by the judge.
Jonathan Gravel has indeed stretched the legal process for more than eight years, multiplying the requests and the changes of lawyers. Judge Cimon notably refused his request for a stay of proceedings in 2021 in a 159-page judgment. If he had received his sentence a few months earlier, he would not have been eligible for house arrest.
In his long decision, read for two hours, Judge Cimon said he took into account many aggravating factors in imposing the sentence, including the “very intrusive and violent” penetration and the consequences for the vulnerable victim.
The magistrate, however, insists on the “convincing demonstration of rehabilitation” of the aggressor, an unemployed man who lives with his parents. The judge underlines the “psychological distress” of the accused, his “stigmatization on the internet” and his very low risk of recidivism to lean on the side of the suspended sentence of 20 months, followed by a probation of two years.
“I am aware that you could consider this sentence unsatisfactory,” said the judge to the victim, who attended the hearing by videoconference.
The prosecutor M.e Dinelle also insisted on underlining the “very great resilience” of the victim in the press scrum. “It’s been more than 8 years that it lasts for her,” he summarizes. Me Dinelle maintains that it is “highly possible” that the public prosecutor will appeal this judgment.
Hidden by his hood, Jonathan Gravel did not answer our questions. He is represented by Mr.e Anne-Sophie Dagenais.