September 2007
Ramsay was scheduled for a parole hearing September 11th, 2007 in Dorchester New Brunswick. Ramsay elected a private hearing thereby denying the community access. A federal parole board denied Ramsay early release.
January 2006
Justice for Girls, the Native Women's Association of Canada, and the BC Native Women's Society met with BC Attorney General Wally Oppal to call for a full public inquiry into this and other cases of violence against Aboriginal teenage girls in BC.
R. V. David William
Ramsay
BC Supreme Court, Prince George BC
Judge: Mr. Justice Dohm
Special Prosecutor: Dennis Murray
Defense Counsel: Leonard Doust
Guilty Plea
Entered: May 3rd,
2004
Ramsay plead guilty to:
1 count s. 272 – Sexual
assault causing bodily harm (Sentence range, 4 to14 years)
3 counts s. 212.4 –
Procuring/Sexual exploitation of a young person under the
age of 18 (Sentence range, 0-5 yrs)
1 counts s.122 –
Breach of Trust (Sentence range, 0 to 5years)
Stayed Charges:
1 count s.151 –Child sexual
abuse - Sexual touching of a person under 14 years
1 count s.152 –Child sexual abuse – Invitation to sexual
touching of a person <14yr
1 count s. 271 – Sexual Assault
1 count s. 272 – Sexual assault with a weapon, threats or
causing bodily harm
1 count s. 212.4 - Procuring/Sexual exploitation of a young
person <18yrs
Sentence:
7 years in prison
June 1st, 2004,
BC Supreme Court, Prince George BC
Reasons for Judgement
Justice Dohm gave Ramsay a stiffer sentence than recommended by Crown and made the following comment:"To remain within counsels' agreed range would in my view bring the administration of justice into disrepute and be contrary to the public interest. These principles can have no better application than in this particular case." [para 6]
JUSTICE FOR GIRLS
called for a sentence that:
1) Strongly
denounces violence against Aboriginal teenage girls
2) Contextualizes
Ramsay’s crimes in terms of pervasive violence against Aboriginal girls and severe oppression through poverty and
the legacy of colonization,
3) Considers hate
and prejudice--based on sex, race, and age--as an
aggravating factor,
4) Considers the
breach of trust based on Ramsay’s position as a Judge, and
especially in light of the fact that he presided over his
victims on various occasions, as a substantial aggravating
factor, and
5) Considers the
number of offences, brutality, degradation and
dehumanization of Ramsay’s acts of violence.
Justice for Girls
retained
Kelly A. MacDonald, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., an Aboriginal lawyer
with substantial expertise in criminal justice issues
relating to Aboriginal women and girls, to consider our
options for intervening in this case. Kelly MacDonald prepared a brief on behalf of Justice for Girls which is currently under consideration by the BC Attorney General. Justice for Girls is asking for a review of this and other cases of violence against Indigenous teenage girls in British Columbia. Read JFG Brief to the AG...
FACTS AGREED UPON BY CROWN AND
DEFENSE:
YOUNG WOMEN VICTIMIZED BY RAMSAY
(1992-2001)
- 4 young women
- All First Nations girls
- Girls
ranged in age from 12-16 at the time of Ramsay’s attacks
on them
- All 4 girls had
appeared before Ramsay as a judge (some in youth criminal court,
some in family court)
RAMSAY’S ATTACKS
AGAINST ABORIGINAL GIRLS
Ramsay admitted
to:
- Picking up girls
in order to pay money to sexual abuse/exploit them
- In most cases,
driving girls to a wooded area near a prison where he
sexually abused them
- Paying money to
sexually abuse the girls
- Going into a rage
when a 16 year old young woman wanted him to wear a
condom, smashing her head against the dashboard of his car
until her head was bleeding, repeatedly calling her “a
whore,” chasing her down the road when she escaped from
the car, raping her when he caught her, leaving her naked
on the highway
- Paying money to
sexually abuse a 13 year old girl, berating her by and
calling her a “whore,” telling her that nobody would
believe her if she told because she was “a whore”
- Attacking a 15
year old girl and trying to rob her after paying her money
for sex and then and threatening to kill her
- Ramsay slapped
girls, raped girls, threatened them with death, verbally
abused girls, robbed them, chased them, left a young woman
naked on the highway
The following
must be considered in this case:
Violence against
Aboriginal girls
- Up to 75% of
victims of sex crimes in Aboriginal communities are female
under 18 years of age, 50% of those are under 14, and
almost 25% of those are younger than 7 years of age
(Correctional Service of Canada, cited in McIvor & Nahanee
1998:65)
- The
incidence of child sexual abuse in some Aboriginal
communities is as high as 75 to 80% for girls under 8
years old (McEvoy &
Daniluk 1995)
- From 1988 to
1995, six First Nations girls have gone missing or were
murdered on Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia,
nobody has been arrested or charged
- The Native
Women’s Association of Canada’s Sisters in Spirit Campaign
estimates 500 Aboriginal women and girls are missing
across Canada
- 60% of the
murdered/missing women from the Downtown Eastside of
Vancouver are Aboriginal young women
- In every court
case that Justice for Girls has monitored in the past 4
years involving male sexual violence against multiple
teenage girls, Aboriginal girls were victimized (sometimes
all of the victims were Aboriginal) by non-Aboriginal men.
- There is a long
history of white men in positions of trust or authority
abusing Aboriginal teenage girls: priests in residential
schools, foster fathers, teachers, youth workers,
corrections officers, police, and others.
Hate & Prejudice
The facts in this case
indicate that Ramsay was specifically targeting Aboriginal
teenage girls and subjecting them to sexual and physical
violence, degradation and dehumanization that is indicative
of hatred.
Mr. Justice Murray Sinclair,
Report of the Aboriginal
Justice Inquiry of
Manitoba, Volume
2, Regarding the death of Helen Betty Osbourne:
She [Helen Betty] fell victim to vicious stereotypes born of
ignorance and aggression when she was picked up by four
drunken men looking for sex. Her attackers seemed to be
operating on the assumption that Aboriginal [young] women
were promiscuous and open to enticement through alcohol or
violence. It is evident that these men who abducted Osborne
believed that young Aboriginal women were objects with no
human value beyond sexual gratification.... There is one
fundamental fact: her murder was a racist and sexist act.
Betty Osborne would be alive today had she not been an
Aboriginal [young] women.
Professor Emma LaRocque, a Metis woman and professor of
Native Studies at the University of Manitoba,
Report of the Aboriginal
Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, Volume
1:
The portrayal of the squaw is one of the most degraded,
most despised and most dehumanized anywhere in the world.
The 'squaw' is the female counterpart to the Indian
male 'savage' and as such she has no human face; she is
lustful, immoral, unfeeling and dirty. Such grotesque
dehumanization has rendered all Native women and girls
vulnerable to gross physical, psychological and sexual
violence... I believe that there is a direct relationship
between these horrible racist/sexist stereotypes and
violence against Native women and girls.
Canadian Criminal Code S. 718.2
A
court that imposes a sentence shall also take into
consideration the following principles:
(a) a sentence should be increased or reduced to
account for any relevant aggravating or mitigating
circumstances relating to the offence or the offender, and,
without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
(i) evidence that the offence was motivated by bias,
prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin,
language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical
disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor,
(ii) evidence that the offender, in committing the offence,
abused the offender's spouse or common-law partner or child,
(iii) evidence that the offender, in committing the offence,
abused a position of trust or authority in relation to the
victim,
(iv) evidence that the offence was committed for the benefit
of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal
organization, or
(v) evidence that the offence was a terrorism offence
shall be deemed to be aggravating circumstances;
(b) a sentence should be similar to sentences imposed
on similar offenders for similar offences committed in
similar circumstances;
(c) where consecutive sentences are imposed, the
combined sentence should not be unduly long or harsh;
(d) an offender should not be deprived of liberty, if
less restrictive sanctions may be appropriate in the
circumstances; and
(e) all available sanctions other than imprisonment
that are reasonable in the circumstances should be
considered for all offenders, with particular attention to
the circumstances of aboriginal offenders.
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R.v.Tremblay - Justice for Girls is outraged at the lenient
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