Law Times

Law Times • March 16, 2015 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com Eventually, a friend of Stack's, Ken Rumak, called Liepsig and relayed the story. First, Rumak tried to keep Stack's name secret but he later told her he had to give it to the officer after Liepsig got "heavy" with him. While she returned a call from Liepsig, Stack told the court she declined to meet with him. "She testified that she told Officer Liepsig that he had all the information he needed, and that she could add nothing. He offered to meet in a coffee shop, to which Ms. Stack said no," wrote Gray, describing Stack's side of the story. "Finally, Officer Liepsig said Ms. Stack should come to the police station. Ms. Stack testi- fied that Officer Liepsig said that if she came to the police sta- tion and talked to him, he would keep her identity secret. He said he would protect her and she would be totally anonymous." Shortly after the conversa- tion at the station, police ar- rested Patrick and Sean. But soon after, Stack noticed the boys' parents, the Ellisons, were acting strangely toward her. The father, Jim Ellison, would "make chicken sounds, clucking and f lapping his arms" whenever he saw her. "[Stack] testified that the Ellisons started to watch them constantly," wrote Gray. "The Ellisons would come to their living room window or onto the front step of their house or onto their driveway, and glare at them. She said the watching was relentless." And Stack testified things came to a head when one day, an angry Ellison drove his truck onto the sidewalk directly to- ward her and she escaped un- harmed by jumping behind a tree. Stack and her husband, Chad Nissen, told the court they sold their Whitby home and moved away from the area due to the harassment. Unbeknownst to Stack, police had recorded her inter- view with Liepsig at the station. Ellison had a copy of the video after police gave it to his lawyer. According to Hoy, Stack suf- fers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder because of the ordeal. "She had every right to ex- pect the police would keep their word. They did absolutely noth- ing to keep their word, and that's very troubling," says Hoy. "We need people to be able to come forward and give infor- mation without concern to their safety." When Stack reached out to police about the harassment from her neighbours, they responded with silence, Gray noted. "There are certain aggravat- ing features here. First, as noted, the police did nothing what- soever to preserve Ms. Stack's anonymity. Second, once they became aware of the harassing behaviour by Mr. Ellison, they did almost nothing about it," he wrote. "Apart from one brief con- versation with Mr. Ellison, in which it is doubtful that the importance of the problem was impressed on Mr. Ellison, the police did nothing. There was no evidence of any follow-up with Mr. Ellison. Indeed, some- what inexplicably, no one even followed up with Mr. Nissen or Ms. Stack to advise them that Mr. Ellison had been spoken to." If Gray's decision raises con- cerns about opening up the f loodgates to similar lawsuits, "that's really a concern about a f lood of people who may have been wronged," says Dewart. Andra Maxwell-Baker, counsel for Durham Regional Police, wasn't able to comment last week, saying she didn't have permission to speak to Law Times by press time. LT NEWS Cops 'did nothing whatsoever' to preserve informant's anonymity Defence lawyers' responsibilities emphasized Continued from page 1 allow victims of sexual assault to break their lease if they're f lee- ing violence. Wynne also plans to update Ontario's health and physical education curriculum in a bid to foster a deeper understand- ing of healthy relationships and consent. Craig says the plan is an ex- ample of an "innovative" way of addressing issues through a mul- tipronged, systemic approach and not just stiffer penalties. "It reveals some understand- ing on the part of the govern- ment that this is a social prob- lem that can't be responded to simply by . . . stiffer sentences or mandatory minimums," says Craig. "It stands in stark contrast to the federal government's law- and-order, narrow-minded ap- proach to what is a complex so- cial problem," she adds. While it's encouraging to see the government taking ac- tion, Butt says the changes an- nounced earlier this month are just a start. "All together, I'd call these baby steps. We're looking at a profound structural failure," says Butt, who points to statis- tics in the province's report on the issue that say that for every 1,000 sexual assault incidents in Canada, 33 are reported to po- lice, 12 result in charges, six are prosecuted, and just three lead to a conviction. "If any private business had a customer satisfaction rate of 0.3 per cent, which is what that is, they'd be bankrupt in a heart- beat," says Butt. "What we're staring at is a profound systemic failing." In addition to full legal rep- resentation for victims of sexual assault, Butt says he'd like to see a range of options for those seek- ing justice, including restorative justice alternatives. "Anyone who is familiar with the complicated aftermath of sexual victimization will recog- nize that the responses to that are as diverse and varied as the women who are victimized. Some want a full-blown pros- ecution, some want alternative measures, some want to sue civ- illy," says Butt. "Right now, we've kind of fit it all with a one-size-fits-all model of prosecute, prosecute, prosecute," he adds. "I'm not saying that's not the best solution in many cases. It probably is, but how about giv- ing Crown attorneys, for exam- ple, a civil option? Or how about a healing circle?" But there's some disagree- ment on whether this is a good area for restorative justice alter- natives like healing circles. "I'd not suggest those types of restorative justice processes at this point not because I'm nec- essarily adverse to restorative justice but because I don't think we're ready for that in this con- text," says Craig. "There were attempts in Nova Scotia in the past to use those processes in the context of sexual violence and they were not well received," she adds. "In fact, there's a moratorium on them in this province." Craig says she was happy to see in the government's report that the province is working with the Law Society of Up- per Canada to make sure law- yers uphold their professional responsibilities and Canada's rape-shield laws that limit the use of a sexual assault survivor's history as evidence in criminal cases. That's an area that gets no at- tention, according to Craig. "We don't have any examples, I think, of lawyers being disciplined by regulators for, say, invoking sex- ist stereotypes about sexual as- sault complainants," she says. "The law society doesn't respond to that and, unfortu- nately, trial judges often don't. They're worried about entering the fray; they're worried about being overturned on appeal for creating an apprehension of bias." While defence coun- sel should strictly uphold rape-shield laws, Butt says efforts to further boost the role of crimi- nal lawyers in improving victims' experience in the justice system should consider the dangerous potential of hindering a vigorous defence. "It only takes one or two wrongful convictions for people to lose a whole lot of confidence in the system as a whole, so we have to be very careful when we look at that side of the ledger," he says. "As long as you recognize that as No. 1, yes, you can take a very careful look at how these cases are being defended and if the way they're defended is part of the problem." LT Continued from page 1 Untitled-1 1 2015-03-12 8:03 AM

• Cover