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As one who has had sex when intoxicated, consented and even initiated same, I cannot disagree with the latest judge to spark outrage across the land when he said this week in an oral decision given from the bench, “Clearly, a drunk can consent.”

Indeed, if we are to be realistic about this, probably half the sexual encounters in the western world are at any time fuelled by alcohol or drugs. As a young woman, certainly, a good many of mine were.

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But in the particular case that was before Nova Scotia Provincial Court Judge Gregory Lenehan, wow, I struggle to understand his decision.

I rush to point out that I am not a lawyer, so it may be that the judge wasn’t merely seeing how many angels he could make dance on the point of a pin when he acquitted taxi driver Bassam Al-Rawi of sexual assault, but that’s sure how it looks to me.

On the evening of May 22-23, 2015, when the young woman in question (her name is protected by the standard publication ban) was luckily found sprawled in Bassam Al-Rawi’s taxi by Const. Monia Thibault, she was drunk and unconscious.