Advocacy in Practice
Interest Group Members Protest use of Provocation as a Defence in Murder Trial
Domestic Violence has always been an advocacy issue for CFUW Etobicoke.
In 1996 a client of Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter was killed by her husband. A group of club members decided to come together to study the issue of domestic violence. We called ourselves The Jullet Group in her honour. In 1998 her husband came to trial and we attended the proceedings. The court room was very small but we were able to crowd in several club members along with several Ernestine’s staff members.
The defence attorney asked the judge to remove us from the court, but he refused to do so. The jury convicted the accused of manslaughter. We were very disappointed in the result and made our disappointment known loud and clear outside the court building by picketing and chanting, “Murder is not Manslaughter”.
The defence of provocation had been raised in the case and there was discussion in the legal community and the media at that time about the merits of this defence. It seemed like a good time to propose a resolution to get this issue in the CFUW policy book. This involved considerable research and preparation and we were successful at the 1999 CFUW Annual General Meeting. The resolution is now part of CFUW’s advocacy policy for use the next time the controversy surrounding this issue bubbles up in the legal community.
Murder to Manslaughter – 1999 CFUW Etobicoke
RESOLVED, That the Canadian Federation of University Women urge the Government of Canada to reform Section 232 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which pertains to provocation as a defence that reduces culpable homicide from murder to manslaughter, in order to eliminate injustices which can result from the use of this defence.