Backlash and the Feminist Judge: The Work of Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dube

• Author: Hester Lessard
• Pages: 133-142

Eight

Backlash

and the

Feminist Judge:

The

Work

of

Justice

Claire

L'Heureux-Dube

HESTER

LESSARD*

In

thinking

about

the

path marked

out by

Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dube,

I

found

myself drawn

to the

dramatic

points

of

challenge

and

resistance that

have marked

her

judicial career. These flashpoints seem emblematic

of the

larger

phenomenon

of

political backlash against

the

project

of

social justice

and all

things even

faintly

feminist that

has

taken over

the

public

mood.

The

swirl

of

controversy that erupted

in the

wake

of

Justice L'Heureux-Dube's

decision

in R. v.

Ewanchuk,1

for

example, reveals

how

severe

the

costs

can be

for

those

who

seek

to

open

up the

spaces

of

legal discourse

to

women's lives.

In

Ewanchuk,

a

case dealing with

a

criminal prosecution

for

sexual assault,

Justice

L'Heureux-Dube's concurring reasons drew attention

to the

sexist

stereotypes that have shaped

the law of

sexual

assault.2

In

particular,

she

pointed

to the

imagery

of the

wily

deceitful

seductress

and the

earnest

befud-

dled romantic male that underpinned,

she

argued, Justice McClung's conclu-

sion

at the

Alberta Court

of

Appeal that

the

accused

in the

case

had

inno-

cently mistaken resistance

for

consent

to

sexual advances

or, to put it

more

bluntly,

had

mistaken "no" said three times over

for

"yes." Justice McClung

reacted

to the

Supreme Court

of

Canada's unanimous overturning

of his

decision

by

lambasting

in the

press,

not the

majority reasons,

but

Justice

L'Heureux-Dube's concurrence, suggesting that

she had

misused

her

position

on the

Supreme

Court

of

Canada

to

advance

her

personal

and

political agen-

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