SA-born judge in trouble in Canada

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Published Sep 12, 2016

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Cape Town - A former Johannesburg senior advocate, and now a federal judge in Canada faces possible removal from the Bench in that country over controversial statements he made during a 2014 rape trial.

Robin Camp, 64, had blamed the 19-year-old victim who is a Native American, homeless at the time of her assault and with a history of substance abuse, for not fighting off her attacker, implying that she wanted sex because she was drunk. Now he is fighting to hold on to his R3.4 million-a-year job.

Camp got his BCom at Stellenbosch and law degree from Wits University in the 1970s.

Camp had until 1997 been a member of the Johannesburg Bar Association and, according to the Washington Post, had represented members of the ANC in the 1990s.

In 1998 he emigrated to Canada, where he worked as a lawyer in Calgary specialising mostly in corporate litigation. In 2012 he was appointed to the Alberta provincial bench, and in June last year as federal judge in the criminal division.

Now questions are being asked in Canada of how Camp could have been appointed to the bench, as he does not have a background in criminal law.

During the trial he told the victim: “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together? Why didn’t you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate you?”.

The Intervener Coalition of women’s organisations in Canada have called for Camp’s removal over his comments, cited by the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) as “reflecting an antipathy towards legislation designed to protect the integrity of vulnerable witnesses, and designed to maintain the fairness and effectiveness of the justice system”.

Kim Stanton, speaking on behalf of the coalition, said the process to remove Camp might be protracted.

The panel hearing his case, consisting of members of the CJC and lawyers, will hear closing arguments later on Monday evening and then make recommendations to the CJC.

Cape Times

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