Defending Battered Women on Trial: the Challenges & Complexities - A Discussion with Kim Pate

Every six days a woman in Canada is killed by an intimate partner. Too often, such deaths have been tied to inaction or inappropriate action on the part of the criminal justice authorities. Women are left to protect themselves and their children. When an abused woman protects herself against threat and danger which are in no way her own making, she should be able to avail herself of criminal law defences. Abused women should not be criminally convicted when they act to protect themselves and their children from lethal intimate partner violence.

Kim Pate is a lawyer and teacher by training and has completed post graduate work in the area of forensic mental health and was awarded an honourary doctorate by the University of Ottawa. Kim is the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) and a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. CAEFS is a federation of autonomous societies which work with, and on behalf of, marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized women and girls throughout Canada. Kim has also worked with youth and men during her 29 years of working in and around the legal and penal systems. Kim Pate is mother to Michael and Madison.

Presented by the Sexual Assault Law Club. For more information, contact kirby.smith [at] mail.mcgill.ca.