Mattress Girl’s Revenge

Vincent J. Curtis

28 Jan 21

RE: Province aims to ban probes into student’s sexual pasts.  Hamilton Spectator 28 Jan 21

When you cut through the bafflegab in the story, what is clear is that women’s groups are fighting for the power to destroy men they don’t like.  These men may be cads, but they aren’t criminals.

The give-away is a seemingly minor difference in terminology.  McMaster University has a policy on sexual violence, but the Associate Minister of Children’s and Women’s Issues said the government has zero tolerance for sexual assault.  The difference is that sexual assault is a crime, but sexual violence is an administrative matter under the purview of the university.  The criminal justice system has well developed procedures for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault.  But the university has far less experience in dealing with sexual violence, and the action proposed by the provincial government is a ham-fisted attempt to import “rape-shield” protections of criminal procedures into university administrative policies.

The key change is that the plaintiff, or “survivor” as they are called – note the change in presumption of innocence – cannot be sanctioned for violating the university’s drug and alcohol policy if she admit to violating it in the course of her complaint.  In other words, if mattress girl was drunk or high on drugs and had sex with a guy who was also drunk or high and she later regretted the encounter, she can complain, but his impairment is no defense.

Ontario universities aren’t as wicked on due process as American universities are, but this change gets them closer.

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