It's hard to get an article about non-State torture published
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As a writer, I find it’s difficult to get certain topics and issues published on mainstream media sites. That means critical arguments as well as important facts, voices, and truths are not reaching readers who deserve to know.
This site is about creating space for those silenced ideas and bringing together points of view that you won’t find on corporate funded pages.
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Wecome to my inaugral article about Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald, two retired public health nurses from Truro, Nova Scotia. Their groundbreaking work, and determination to have non-State torture included in the criminal Code of Canada and recognized by a UN declaration, is truly inspiring.
— Cheers!
The United Nations (UN) condemned torture in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and in the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhumane and Degrading Punishment or Treatment (ratified in 1987).
Signatory states all agreed that torture is illegal. But Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald want a new declaration added to the UN list making torture executed by non-State actors illegal on an international level as well.
Alexandra Lane was born into a non-State torture (NST) family in Saskatchewan, Canada. She eventually fled to the United States to get away from her torturers.
She says, “Learning that NST is a human rights violation gave me a sense of worth as a human that I hadn’t felt before.”
Her husband, Robert Holodak, wants people to know, “Non-State torture is a real thing that happens every day and it happens in people’s families all over the world.”
For three decades, Sarson and MacDonald have been helping women who have experienced NST. Their book, Women Unsilenced: Our Refusal To Let Torturer-Traffickers Win (2021), details their ground-breaking work with victims living with, leaving, and recovering from NST.
They continue speaking out about NST in an attempt to get this human rights violation included in the Criminal Code of Canada.
NST includes water boarding; brainwashing; electric shock; food and sleep deprivation; as well as forced pregnancies and abortions; and participation in pornography.
This systemic, intentional and prolonged sexualized torture is carried out by family members, strangers, traffickers, pornographers, and buyers of sex rather than agents of the state.
Sarson and MacDonald’s research identified a definite patriarchal divide between state torture, where men are the main victims, and NST, where women and girls are victimized in their homes and other non-military locations.
In 2016, Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos (London North Center, Ontario) brought forward private members Bill C-242 to make NST a crime and offer legal recourse for survivors.
The bill passed second reading but died at committee after department of justice officials, and the Criminal Lawyers Association, argued the law was unnecessary.
That sentiment has been echoed by successive Attorney Generals, including Jody Wilson Raybould and David Lametti.
At issue is the fact that Canada, as a signatory to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, must be able to prosecute torture committed outside of Canada where the alleged offender is a Canadian citizen or is present in Canada after the offence has been committed.
It's generally pointed out by the office of the Attorney General that, section 269.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada specifically states that a charge of torture, “Would apply to a government official or any person acting at the instigation of, with the consent of, or with the acquiescence of such an official.”
‘Official’ refers to a peace officer, public officer or member of the Canadian Forces. And, there in lies the problem – it does not include individual members of society who commit torture.
The Criminal Code is generally held up as already capturing conduct associated with private torture, most notably crimes of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.
Charging a non-State actor under the Criminal Code means a survivor of NST would have to charge each torturer for every act of aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault committed.
Truth is, NST often begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. It generally involves multiple torturers over many decades. Charging individual torturers for every act simply isn’t an option.
This past December, the retired public health nurses from Truro, Nova Scotia addressed the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna, Austria. They were hoping to generate interest in developing a UN Declaration on Ending NST.
The declaration would empower states to fulfill their obligation at all levels to protect, prevent, investigate, prosecute and hold accountable perpetrators of NST torture without impunity.
A victim-centered NST declaration would ensure effective access to appropriate protections, remedies and reparations on a national basis for victims and survivors.
Thousands of women from around the globe have told Sarson and MacDonald that they want the crime named as NST. These women also want a global declaration to stop these human rights abuses.
According to MacDonald, “[The women] are really the most invisible victims. Their perpetrators are the most invisible perpetrators. It’s the most unrecognized, unreported crime globally.”
The relationships between torturers and victims are very intimate and a coded language is often used so outsiders won’t suspect a thing.
Sarah (not her real name) was tortured from infancy. A photograph taken of her when she was two-years-old -- wearing a party dress and holding a stuffed animal -- is a reminder of the ‘Christmas party’ when ‘guests’ tortured her in the room in her Nova Scotia home dedicated to those types of activities.
NST perpetrators are very intentional in their actions and children are indoctrinated from an early age to commit suicide before ever disclosing the torture.
As an adult, Sarah contacted Sarson and MacDonald when she was contemplating suicide. It was during their conversations that it became clear Sarah had been tortured and trafficked by her parents and told to kill herself before revealing the family secret.
Sarson knows all too well that unless the UN makes a declaration, that includes Canada as a signatory, then change will never happen.
When asked why it must be a declaration, Sarson responded, “The issue with general recommendations is they are soft laws and countries can just ignore them. The same with the UN Convention against Torture because it’s very focused on State actors, but it’s a soft law and countries can ignore it.”
She went on to say, “A declaration is trying to promote awareness so the voices of those who we’ve presented, who are victimized around the world, know that they’re not totally invisible.”