Gian Gomeshi Finale – A Win for the Good Guys

So the final Gian Gomeshi trial didn’t finish like anybody expected it to. And why not? It was never in the cards, is why not. Everyone wants the big finale. Everyone wants the silver bullet, the monster is vanquished, and all that movie nonsense.

It rarely happens, and especially with cases like this.

The Real Conflict

The problem is that our society is faced with two conflicting ethics. The first is that bullying and harassment are not right. The second is that it takes two to tango, that everyone has his or her own point of view, that every person deserves a fair trial, etc. etc. And neither of these conflicting attitudes is wrong.

What causes the disconnect is that in cases of harassment the second premise is usually false. When you have a bully and a victim, it is usually the bully’s fault. The choice to fight is made by the power junkie alone, and the victim is precisely that. A victim. But the perpetrators of these crimes have long ago learned to play the system, to take advantage of the second premise to protect themselves.

So, especially when it comes to court, the lawyers concentrate on the second premise in order that their client can escape the penalties of breaking the first one. See “The Marie Henein Defence,” April 3.

But All is Not Lost

Fortunately for the rest of us, being cleared of an official charge is not what it’s all about. Because bullies work in secret, playing a camouflage role in public, and that’s how they get most of their dirty work done. Everyone says, “Oh, no, he’s an upstanding citizen. You must be wrong,” and “Oh, no, look at all the good work she does, she couldn’t be like that.” And the victim feels ostracized.

But when the victim has the courage to bring it all out into the open, and the bully falls back on the law, it all falls apart. The bully says, “See, I wasn’t declared guilty!” and the general public says, “No, but you weren’t declared innocent either, and now we all know you’re an a**hole.”

Which is exactly what happened to Gian Gomeshi. As I suggested in “Mike Duffy Acquitted – Sort of,” on April 22,  neither man was proved innocent. Since they made their living based on the public image they had created, and that image is now forever tarnished, the nominal “not guilty” means little to them.

And when Kathryn Borel got her 15 minutes in front of the media after the case, when she got her insincere apology from the perpetrator, and most importantly when the CBC, which was the main problem in the situation, also apologized to her totally and abjectly, she got far more than anyone should have hoped.

Unacceptable Behaviour

Because the worst problem in this whole situation is not Gian Gomeshi’s sexual proclivities. The real problem is that when Borel complained of her treatment at work, her employers told her it was part of the job, and that she had to put up with it.

Canada sees itself as a friendly, inclusive, open-minded country, but when upper level managers in well-respected national institutions like the RCMP and the CBC are found to have that sort of Cro-Magnon attitude towards their female employees, I think we have just discovered that we have a long way to go.

And that takes courage. Every time we stand up to them is a win for us, no matter what the verdict. And sometimes, like for Kathryn Borel and her fellow victims, we get more than that.