A judge who asked a complainant in a sexual assault trial why she couldn’t just keep her knees together should be removed from the bench, an inquiry tasked with probing the matter has concluded.



In a unanimous recommendation released on Wednesday, the five-person inquiry committee of the Canadian Judicial Council said Robin Camp “committed misconduct” while presiding over a 2014 trial into allegations of sexual assault.

The judge’s conduct, the committee said in its report, “was so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the judge incapable of executing the judicial office”.

The Calgary trial made headlines around the world after it emerged that Camp had repeatedly asked the 19-year-old complainant why she hadn’t done more to prevent the alleged rape. “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” Camp asked her. Later he told her that “sex and pain sometimes go together”.

Throughout the trial, Camp erroneously referred to her as “the accused”. At one point he asked the complainant – who said the alleged assault took place on a bathroom sink – why she hadn’t sunk her “bottom down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate you”.

Camp went on to acquit the man accused in the case. The Alberta court of appeal later ordered a new trial.

In September, an inquiry began looking into whether Camp – a provincial judge who had been recently promoted to the Federal court – should be removed from the bench.

The inquiry heard a remorseful Camp apologise for his remarks. “I was not the good judge I thought I was,” said the 64-year-old. Camp, who was born in South Africa and moved to Calgary in 1998, said he had not understood the changes made to Canadian laws aimed at sheltering sexual assault complainants from discriminatory attitudes.

The inquiry also heard from the female complainant, who said Camp’s remarks had left her grappling with suicidal thoughts. “What did he get from asking that?” she asked. “He made me hate myself and he made me feel like I should have done something … that I was some kind of slut.”

On Wednesday, the inquiry committee said Camp’s questions showed “an antipathy towards laws designed to protect vulnerable witnesses, promote equality and bring integrity to sexual assault trials.” The judge, they added, also relied on “discredited myths and stereotypes about women and victim-blaming during the trial and in his reasons for judgment.”

The recommendation will now be considered by the Canadian Judicial Council. Camp will be invited to make written submissions before the council issues a formal recommendation on his fate to Canada’s justice minister.