Now that Jane Doe has told her story, we, as CASAC, feel freer to comment. Jane Doe took full advantage of Canadian anti-rape centres. She walked into the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre already influenced by the feminist public education work done, by then, in that city for a decade. She was informed about the political nature of rape and her entitlement in law to police response. She was reinforced in her belief in a natural as well as legal right to complain about rape and be protected from rape. She was aware of and part of a political movement creating women’s power. That knowledge informed her outrage at being used by the police as bait instead of being protected from the “balcony rapist.”
She did her best to assist in the capture, trial, conviction, and imprisonment of that man and CASAC helped. Then she went after the forces that contributed to her being attacked. When she wanted to officially complain, when she wanted to poster her neighbourhood to warn other women and find her rapist, when she wanted to organize a new temporary feminist action group, she used the resources of the Toronto centre. She asked for and got aid: from phone numbers, to womanpower, paper and photocopier, meeting space, and library.
Read this story in Canada’s Promises to Keep: The Charter and Violence Against Women, pp. 75-76.