A Penhold woman who was abducted and sexually assaulted by a man dressed as an RCMP officer in 2009 told lawmakers in Ottawa that Canada has a long way to go to address a culture of victim-blaming, in order to make abused women feel comfortable coming forward.
“First of all, we need to stop thinking that women deserve it because they wore too short of a skirt or they drank too much,” she said, speaking April 22 before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. “Women need to not feel ashamed.”
The committee was considering Bill C-444, an amendment to the Criminal Code that would bring in penalties of up to five years for impersonating a police officer for the purpose of carrying out a crime. Red Deer MP Earl Dreeshen brought the private member's bill forward after the victim and her mother approached him in May 2010.
“It's only recently that I've been able to actually come out and speak about it,” she said. “I've had a lot of people come to me and say, ‘This happened to me, but I never reported it because I was scared.'”
On Feb. 26, 2009 she went to gas up her truck and get some juice for her sore throat, because the 16-year-old was determined to make it to school the next day. A man dressed with a coat, fur hat and flashes on the shoulders pulled up behind her, less than 25 feet from her mom's window. He covered her eyes with blacked out ski goggles and cut her face with a knife while yelling, “You're under arrest.”
Two days later she called her parents from a payphone to let them know she'd survived the sexual terror.
Gerard John Baumgarte, who was 57 at the time of the crime, is serving an 18-year sentence for the offences after pleading guilty to kidnapping, sexual assault, assault with a weapon, confinement and impersonating a peace officer, using an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence and assault using a knife. He received just six months of jail time for the personating charge, to be served concurrently.
The victim's mother told the committee her daughter's trust of uniformed authority figures has been decimated by the event, and has already experienced a panic attack and a vivid flashback while encountering police officers in the line of duty.
Last year while travelling home late at night with her boyfriend after stopping by her mom's workplace, she had come across a single vehicle collision involving what appeared to be a drunk driver.
“They did the right thing, and they called the police,” her mother said. Five police cruisers quickly arrived on scene, which triggered a full-on flashback.
“The very people who we as a society are supposed to turn to in times of crisis sent her into an exacerbation of her post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said. “We need to make it clear that personating a member is not only an offence under the Criminal Code, but it's an offence against society as a whole, and that is why it should be an aggravating offence, so that justices may penalize accordingly and make the punishment fit the egregious nature of the crime.”
On April 24 police warned the public of a man posing as a police officer in the Calgary area who has pulled people over multiple times using red and blue flashing lights.
Dreeshen told the Province it's ongoing incidents like these that underscore the need to close gaps in the Criminal Code, noting his private member's bill has support from all sides of the House of Commons.
“When you see all-party support for something and it has come from your constituency you get the feeling that maybe we can accomplish good things,” he said. “The recognition is the personation is the weapon is being used.”
He said he was proud to listen to the testimony of the mother and her daughter, which took place, appropriately, during National Victims of Crime Awareness Week.
“It gives a sense of empowerment,” he said. “They're able to tell their story to people who are tasked with making this country better and make changes.”
Bill C-444 is expected to pass easily on third reading sometime in the next month or two before heading to the Senate.
