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CALGARY – A Canadian Judicial Council inquiry committee says a judge who asked a sexual assault complainant why she couldn’t just keep her knees together should lose his Federal Court job.
Court transcripts show Robin Camp made the comments during a 2014 trial when he was an Alberta provincial court judge.
It’s now up to the council to decide whether the recommendation should be taken to Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Here are some details of Camp’s legal career:
— Camp receives a bachelor of laws degree in 1975 from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He goes on to serve as an advocate of the Supreme Court of the Transvaal and works as a lawyer in Botswana until 1998.
— Camp successfully completes challenge exams to requalify as a lawyer in Canada in 1998. He is admitted to the Alberta bar in 1999.
— Camp practises law with the Duncan McCachen/Duncan Camp firm in Calgary until 2003.
— He moves to JSS Barristers in Calgary in 2004 and practices there until 2012, becoming a managing partner in 2008. Former Alberta premier Alison Redford’s ex-husband, Robert Hawkes, is a partner with the firm.
— Camp teaches a course at the University of Calgary’s faculty of law in 2011.
— Redford’s cabinet votes to appoint Camp a provincial court judge on March 15, 2012.
— Camp presides over a 2014 sex assault trial in which he makes the controversial comments that will eventually lead to a Canadian Judicial Council hearing into his conduct. Camp acquits the accused, but the verdict is overturned on appeal and a new trial is ordered.
— Peter MacKay, federal Conservative justice minister at the time, names Camp a Federal Court judge on June 26, 2015.
— On Sept. 9, 2016, Camp apologizes for the comments he made at the sexual assault trial. He tells a Canadian Judicial Council panel hearing that he wishes he had never said what he did. “I was not the good judge I thought I was,” he said. “I struck the wrong tone in counsel submissions. I was rude and facetious.”
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