Glenford Canning

It’s been a long week, or a long few months, to be more accurate. Knowing one of those involved in Rehtaeh’s case sits in jail awaiting a trial on numerous sex crimes, including crimes against children, is hard to process. He’s the one in the photo, sexually assaulting Rehtaeh. The one investigating officers didn’t interview.

I remember how mad she was when the police closed her case for a “lack of evidence.” A victim shouldn’t be left with nothing to say but “I hate them.” It would have mattered if she believed they cared, and she didn’t.

In a sad way, when I look back and know what I know now, I wonder what going through a trial would have done to her. Having her life examined, her behavior questioned, and her credibility challenged would have been brutal for her. She had already been traumatized so badly she was suicidal; imagine being blamed for it in court?

Rehtaeh wouldn’t have had a chance.

If women continue to experience violence on an epidemic scale while the vast majority of men remain bystanders, why would we expect the culture inside a frat house to be any different?

A bunch of frat members is an easy thing to point at so we can pretend therein lies the problem and get back to doing nothing.

Last Thursday, a Nova Scotia judge dismissed a sexual assault case against Trailer Park Boys actor Mike Smith after the complainant decided the emotional toll of testifying would be too difficult to endure.

“I am intimidated by a system, despite it being 2026, where defense attorneys still use tactics that blame victims for surviving and reporting sexual assaults,” her statement reads. “My stepping away from the case does not change the facts of that incident. Rather, it is a gesture of reclaiming my agency after investigating options within a system that strips me of my voice.”

In response, Nova Scotia’s Department of Justice told CBC News it recognizes that the court process can be extremely challenging for victims, and it is working “to identify emerging issues, align action across sectors, and inform efforts to improve supports for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.”

• Identify emerging issues.
• Align action across sectors.
• Inform efforts to improve supports for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

Victims deserve better than whatever that’s supposed to mean. Our courts exist because we have faith in them; when that’s lost, and victims would rather remain silent and bear the burden of a life-altering crime alone, it’s not an “emerging issue.” It was decades in the making.

Men don’t need to speak for women; we just need to stop leaving them to speak alone.

Silence is a choice. So is showing up.

What I remember more than anything else following Rehtaeh’s death was how many people showed up and just stood silently. It mattered so much.

I wish Rehtaeh was believed.

Be outraged.

Share your thoughts below.

Glen