A Feminist View of the Supreme Court from the Anti-Rape Frontline

• Author: Lee Lakeman
• Pages: 45-48

Four

A

Feminist View

of the

Supreme Court

from

the

Anti-Rape

Frontline

LEE

LAKEMAN

I

am not a

lawyer

and

neither

are any of the

women

who

work

in my

Vancouver

Rape

Relief

and

Women's Shelter.

Nor do

lawyers work

in the

many Canadian Association

of

Sexual Assault Centres

of

anti-violence

activity across

the

country.

In

fact,

when young women

who are

attending

law

school want

to

volunteer with

us we

feel

obliged

to

warn them

off.

They prob-

ably should

not do so

because

it is

still impossible

to

work

effectively

in a

rape

crisis

centre

or a

transition house

and not be

breaking Canadian

law on a

reg-

ular

basis. Partly thanks

to

you,

Justice

L'Heureux-Dube,

we

will

be

breaking

the law a

little less

often.

I

trust

I am the

only woman here

who has not

read

all

your deci-

sions.

But I

have read enough

to

know that

I can

read them. There

is

some-

thing

in

your writing, your manner, your self-revelations

that

makes

it

clear

to us, the

non-lawyers, that

you

mean

for us to

understand.

We

women

in the

anti-rape centres

are not

quick

to

believe that

the law

or our

current

legal

institutions

are the

route

to

freedom

and

justice

for

women. Rather,

we

accept that

it is

necessary

for us to

commit acts

of

civil

disobedience

in

which

we

refuse

to

submit

to and

comply with

unjust

laws

and

procedures.

Hiding

records

or

destroying records will

be one act you

know about; there

is

also immigration law,

the

obligation

to

report crimes,

and the

need

to

hide prostitutes

and

wives

and

daughters. There

are the

wel-

45