NAWL | ANFD - Jurisfemme, Volume 21, No 2 - Summer 2002 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 7/1/2002
Last Visited: 6/2/2009
Speaker: Lise Gotell
During the 1990s, the scope of access to complainant's confidential records was radically widened in a series of decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada that relied upon an almost inviolable interpretation of the right to a fair trial ( R. v. Osolin,[1993] 4 S.C.R. 595; L.L.A. v. A.B. , [1995] 4 S.C.R. 536; R. v. O'Connor, [1995] 4 S.C.R. 411; R.v.Carosella, [1997] 1 S.C.R. 80).
This liberalized disclosure regime made Canada unique in comparative terms, allowing for almost routine legally sanctioned intrusions into the extra-legal domains where complainants have chosen to tell their stories of assault.
As several analysts have demonstrated (Gotell 2001; Busby, 2000; Aboriginal Women's Council et al., 1995), liberalized disclosure increased the vulnerability and decreased the protections afforded to those with mental health histories and to those who had been extensively documented by state agencies, including aboriginal women, women living in poverty and women with disabilities.
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Lise Gotell is an associate professor of Women's Studies at the University of Alberta.