Jian Ghomeshi, former CBC radio host, was acquitted Thursday on all charges of sexual assault and choking.
The trial has spurred debate among Canadians about how victims of sexual assault are treated by the judicial system.
Ghomeshi pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking that involved three women. Each woman testified in Toronto during his eight-day trial that they were romantically involved with Ghomeshi when he was violent in incidents in 2002 and 2003.
The radio host's defence attorney argued the witnesses lied during testimony about their interaction with him so they were not credible.
To be clear, being found not guilty is not the same as being innocent.
"Any time in a criminal trial that there is an acquittal it's a finding of not guilty, it's not a finding of factual innocence," said Janine Benedet of the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies at the University of British Columbia.
"What it's saying is the Crown (counsel) has failed to prove to the very high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that you did the things you were charged with and whether people conclude that that's because you were innocent or because there were other failures or problems with the crown's case is ultimately up to them to conclude."
Beyond a reasonable doubt is something less than absolute certainty but not a lot less, added Benedet.
It's much closer to 100 per cent true than, for example, probably true.
It means whoever is deciding, whether it's judge or jury, they have to be sure the individual has committed all the elements of the offences with which they were charged, said Benedet.
Ontario court Judge William Horkins said he was not able to rely on the three complainants given their changing recollections and evidence that at times strayed into outright lies.
Typical in sexual assault cases the judge has to rely on the credibility of the complainants, which Horkins said was sorely lacking as was revealed during cross examination.
"What is troubling is not the lack of clarity, but the shifting facts from one telling to the next," Horkins said of one of the three complainants.
"What I can say is that there are two potentially concerning things about a complainant's behaviour after an alleged sexual assault," said Benedet.
"One is to be concerned that anyone who seeks out further intimate, romantic or positive contact with the person who assaulted them must be lying about the assault itself. Some people would say that behaviour is inconsistent with having been sexually assaulted. It's not inconsistent with having been sexually assaulted at all."
And that behaviour isn't limited to just cases in which there is some kind of long-term spousal relationship or dependency where you'd say there is some kind of traumatic bond there and the person is finding it difficult to leave, she added.
"Even in cases of relatively minor or short-term dating relationships where there is a sexual assault the evidence we have suggests a fairly high number of women go out again with the person who assaulted them," said Benedet.
"Sometimes it takes some time to actually admit to oneself that it happened and sometimes there's an attempt to try to reframe what happened as not an assault."
"People don't want to acknowledge that that's what's happened to them and they're trying to move on," Benedet added.
It's also true individuals who routinely sexually assault women in this way are often very good at picking their victims, added Benedet.
"They choose victims whose neediness or their self esteem or attachment to the power of celebrity means that they sometimes do keep coming back and so that's part of the evidence - it would be very troubling to me if we came to a conclusion that the behaviour is inconsistent with being sexually assaulted - it's not," said Benedet. "But the other part is lying about it and that's where in some ways that's where the difficulty happens. It's normal for a sexual assault complainant, or indeed, any witness, to want to kind of hide or shield parts of their behaviour that they feel somehow makes them complicit."
The complainant does not want to acknowledge their own behaviour, she added.
"But it's much, much better to be up front about those things and answer truthfully when asked about them because if you're caught in a lie it doesn't really matter what the lie was about now the judge has a problem in accepting you as a credible witness," said Benedet.
There is an additional charge of sexual assault that will be heard in June stemming from an alleged workplace incident in January 2008 when Ghomeshi was radio host of Q on CBC Radio One.
"It will be interesting to see how that plays out and if there is a different strategy taken by the Crown here in terms of dealing with potentially damaging material up front rather than allowing the complainants to be surprised by it on the stand, which seems to have been an inexplicable strategy really from where I'm sitting," said Benedet.
There is no evidence to suggest false complaints in the area of sexual assault are any higher than any other criminal offence, added Benedet.
"The vast majority of women who are sexually assaulted don't even report it at all," said Benedet.
In Canada 97 per cent of sexual assaults go unreported. Of those sexual assaults that are reported to police, most do not lead to charges, let alone convictions.
Out of every 1,000 sexual assaults in Canada, 997 assailants walk free, according to a statement from the Ending Violence Association of BC. The association cited the information from a 2012 study of Statistics Canads data by Holly Johnson, published in Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women's Activism.
"It takes a lot of bravery to come forward and generally speaking when women do that they're telling the truth - they were sexually assaulted, whether a particular proceeding is able to recognize that or not," Benedet said. "In general, I believe that most women who come forward to make those complaints something did happen to them and that's why they are taking the extraordinary step of going to police and prosecutors and what I don't want is for people to think there is any evidence of an epidemic of false complaints out there because that's just not the case."
On Tuesday, B.C. Solictor General Mike Morris said the way victims are treated by the justice system will be "high on my list" when he meets with the federal Justice Minister.
"It's been an issue I've looked at for years. Why the heck would anybody want to come forward and re-victimize themselves by going to court?" Morris said during a question and answer with local media following the unveiling of a social media campaign, #SaySomething, to combat sexual assault.
"I go back to a statement made by a Supreme Court Justice about 20 years ago at a conference and he said 'The main event is no longer the guilt or innocence of the accused, the main event is now the integrity of the investigation and with that goes the integrity of every witness.'
"I don't like what I see, so we need to come up with a better system to make people feel safe to come forward and report the sexual assaults that take place."
In a statement later this week, Morris said he will be working with federal counterparts on improving support for victims "both in accessing the services they need to heal, and in their engagement with the justice system and additional efforts to hold perpetrators accountable."
This high profile case didn't go in the right direction, said Lorna Dittmar, co-chair of Surpassing Our Survival (S.O.S.) Society, that provides counselling and support services in a safe and supportive environment for individuals, families and groups in Prince George.
"Can you imagine how hard it is for some young teenager to go through something like this?" Dittmar asked who supports the efforts of S.O.S. as staff works with women, children and men to help them overcome the effects of sexual violence. "To me this outcome (in the Ghomeshi case) dashes the hopes for so many women who can't make a case for themselves."
According to Leslie Tozer, executive director and trauma counsellor for the local S.O.S. Society, more than 60 per cent of those seeking counselling at S.O.S. won't lay charges for the sexual assault for which they are seeking counselling.
"And this kind of outcome will shut down so many more," said Dittmar.
"How can we ever win when it's a case of he said she said? Those women are heroines for all the women in our society who don't have the funds, the education or the support to do this. You know everybody gasps when we tell them that S.O.S. takes clients from the age of three - we have men, we have women, we have children - it crosses all borders and it's still hidden and the victims are made to feel guilty. That's disgusting. When are we going to say this is not your fault."
-- With files from the Canadian Press and Mark Nielsen
