
Revue de dRoit d’ottawa • 50e anniveRsaiRe | ottawa Law Review • 50th anniveRsaRy96
Cited three times by the SCC, Professor Sheehy’s article laid the ground-
work for the interpretive framework used in cases of sexual assault. The
SCC first cited the article in 1991, in R v Seaboyer,29 where it considered the
constitutionality of sections 276 and 277 of the Criminal Code. While the
majority of the SCC ultimately struck down the rape shield provisions—a
judgment that later resulted in further legislative reform—the blistering
dissent of Justice L’Heureux-Dubé relied heavily on Professor Sheehy’s
article to underscore the injury of rape, the myths and stereotypes about
women that informed law and policy, and the feminist advocacy that led
to law reform in 1982. Justice L’Heureux-Dubé was clearly influenced by
Professor Sheehy: throughout her judgment, she cited several long pas-
sages from the article, often introducing or concluding the quotations with
statements of agreement.30
In 1999, in R v W (G),31 a case involving intimate partner violence and
sexual assault, Justice L’Heureux-Dubé cited Professor Sheehy’s article
in her concurring opinion. She used the article to, inter alia, underscore
the prevalence of “myths and stereotypes about complainants in sexual
assault cases.”32 The same year, Justice L’Heureux-Dubé again cited Profes-
sor Sheehy’s article in a leading sexual assault case: R v Ewanchuk.33 Writing
about the operation of discriminatory tropes in the sexual assault context
and citing a number of feminist authors, including Professor Sheehy, Jus-
tice L’Heureux-Dubé explained in her concurring opinion: “[t]his case is
not about consent, since none was given. It is about myths and stereo-
types, which have been identified by many authors….”34 Ultimately, Pro-
fessor Sheehy’s article laid the foundation for scholarly debate about the
injury of rape, its impact on women, and the implications for the legal
construction of the law of sexual assault.
Freedom of Association and Compulsory Union Dues
In an important 1987 article, Brian Etherington, who was a professor at
the Faculty of Law of the University of Windsor, sought to develop a
29 [1991] 2 SCR 577, 83 DLR (4th) 193 [Seaboyer cited to SCR].
30 For example, in one passage, Justice L’Heureux-Dubé wrote: “I agree with the criticism
Sheehy, supra, at pp. 774–75, levels at such a narrow reading of the constitutional guaran-
tees” (see Seaboyer, supra note 29 at 696).
31 [1999] 3 SCR 597, 178 DLR (4th) 76 [W(G) cited to SCR].
32 Ibid at para 29.
33 [1999] 1 SCR 330, 169 DLR (4th) 193 [Ewanchuk cited to SCR]. For further discussion of the
SCC’s trilogy of decisions in Seaboyer, supra note 29, W(G), supra note 31, and Ewanchuk,
ibid, see Constance Backhouse, Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017).
34 Ewanchuk, supra note 33 at para 82.