Victim's father decries controversial publication ban that keeps his daughter's name secret
The father of the victim in a high-profile child pornography case in Nova Scotia is decrying a controversial publication ban that prevents the victim's name from being printed."Our daughter should be named because that is exactly what she would want," said the father.The victim's name was widely reported last year - when she died following a suicide attempt. Her death...
The father of the victim in a high-profile child pornography case in Nova Scotia is decrying a controversial publication ban that prevents the victim's name from being printed.
"Our daughter should be named because that is exactly what she would want," said the father.
The victim's name was widely reported last year - when she died following a suicide attempt. Her death became a flash-point in the ongoing public discussion about cyber-bullying and the sexual exploitation of teenage girls. Her story became international news.
Before her death, a picture of this young woman in a sexual situation was passed around her community. She was 15-years-old when it was taken in 2011.
The victim's father says when the case was originally presented to police he told authorities an image being distributed of his daughter constituted child pornography.
Now two young men are facing child pornography charges for creating and distributing that photo. One has entered a guilty plea and awaits sentencing. The other is awaiting trial.
The men cannot be named. They were minors at the time of the alleged crime. The victim can't be named either because this is a child pornography trial - and under Canadian law, victims of child pornography cannot be named in the media.
"When we needed the law to be there for us it wasn't. It just wasn't there for us. To turn around now and say, 'by the way this is the law when it comes to child pornography' and to do so more than a year after our daughter died and to do so just a matter of weeks before this story is going to be headline news again, was just wrong," said the father.
David Fraser is a Halifax lawyer who specializes in issues involving media, secrecy and communications. He says the judge didn't have much choice but to put the ban in place.
"His hands were tied, this is a mandatory publication ban. There is in fact no discretion on the part of the judge. And I think when the law was drafted they didn't imagine a scenario like this," said Fraser.
Fraser says that when the law was put in place the intention was to prevent a victim from becoming further victimized by the judicial process. He believes that the law didn't contemplate a scenario where the victim's next of kin would advocate that the victim's name be released. He also thinks the ban is, in some ways, ineffective.
"The cat is dramatically out of the bag...a quick internet search will bring [the victim's name] up from American media," said Fraser.
The victim's father says he understands the intention of the law, but says the wrong people are being protected by the ban. He says he crossed paths with one of the accused in the case at a Halifax courthouse this August. "When I was walking by, he turned and he just said you know 'This is perfect'," said the father.
"I think he said 'this is perfect' and chose those kind of words because of who's being protected here and it's not my daughter. It's not us, it's not our family. It is perfect for him. It shuts this whole conversation right down," said the father.
The Crown has withdrawn a second charge against the 20-year-old who pleaded guilty in late September. His sentencing is set for November 13.