Andrea Heinz is a grassroots feminist and activist living in Edmonton, AB and a victim of non-state torture. When she was 22-years-old, Heinz was in debt and on the verge of being unhoused.
An ad in the local paper said she could make thousands of dollars a week by providing adult entertainment. Thousands of men paid for sexual access to her body over seven years.
Many were cruel and violent, but Heinz was told that was just part of the job. The torture she endured was rebranded as kink or bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism (BDSM).
“Being paid for these acts skewed my perception leading me to believe that what was happening to me was acceptable when it wasn’t,” she said.
Heinz left prostitution 10 years ago, but still struggles with the effects of Non-State Torture (NST) including shame, anxiety, emotional flatness, and sexual dysfunction.
Patriarchal divide
For over 29 years Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson have been working with women like Heinz and shining a light on NST. Their grassroots, science-based research identified a clear patriarchal divide between state torture and NST. It’s that divide that makes victims of NST invisible.
Essentially, the difference lies in the fact that NST is a crime committed by families, strangers, traffickers, pornographers, and buyers of sex rather than agents of the state.
The patriarchal divide exists because in state torture the primary victims are men while in NST the victims are women and girls and the crime takes place in their homes and other non-military locations.
Yet, NST is a crime of torture that results in human rights violations.
When contacted by rabble, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, David Lametti’s press secretary, Chantalle Aubertin replied, “Canada is committed to playing a strong role in condemning and preventing torture domestically and internationally, part of which requires maintaining the integrity of the internationally-accepted definition of torture.”
Set out in section 269.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada, the definition 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 torture of their own volition.
Non-state torture and the Criminal Code
By not distinguishing NST in the Criminal Code, Sarson and MacDonald believe that society diminishes the human rights violations survivors endured and keeps women and girls silent, powerless, and invisible. Simultaneously, the concealment of NST enables perpetrators to avoid punishment for their acts of torture.
Aubertin went on to say, “In other words, the Criminal Code already contains crimes that capture the kind of conduct associated with private torture, most notably the crimes of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault, while existing sentencing provisions already provide a range of aggravating factors that could apply in a case of private torture.”
Reality is, the Criminal Code not a viable option because a NST survivor would have to charge each torturer for every individual act of sexual assault or aggravated assault they committed – often spanning decades.
That would mean police laying hundreds, if not thousands, of individual charges resulting in decades of litigation and potential appeals.
With 0.003 per cent of sexual assault cases ending in convictions in Canada, pursuing this legal avenue is futile.
The father and mother of Sara, who’s name has been changed to protect her privacy, along with government employees were involved in her torture and trafficking that started as a child and only stopped when she was an adult.
Lynn, who’s name has also been changed for her protection, married a man who became her torturer. Her husband and three male friends kept her captive in a windowless room until she escaped. On duty police officers were involved in her torture and were part of the criminal protection of her four captors.
These women from Nova Scotia and Ontario respectively, figure prominently in MacDonald and Sarson’s book, Women Unsilenced: Our Refusal To Let Torturer-Traffickers Win (2021), detailing their work with victims living with, leaving, and recovering from NST.
MacDonald and Sarson are asking state parties to work collectively to create a declaration that can work as a model strategy to raise global awareness and to put an end to NST.
Wanda, Canadian, was tortured as a child until the night she tried to commit suicide. She was trafficked by her parents to a premier, judges, doctors, nurses, social workers and councillors. The punishment for refusing to cooperate was even more torture.
Wanda, like most NST victims, was taught never to tell. Instead, she was indoctrinated to commit suicide if she ever thought she was going to divulge the torture. This is a common practice in NST.
John Winterdyk is a Professor of Criminology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. He has been studying modern day slavery, or human trafficking, since Canada signed the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Girls in 2002.
He first learned about NST when he heard a presentation by MacDonald and Sarson in 2017. Winterdyk wants legislation that allows for proper attention and redress.
NST is more than abuse or assault because it’s always life threatening. Many women and girls die from their injuries and that needs to be recognized in law.
Meagan Walker, former Executive Director of the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) in London, Ontario has been an avid supporter of MacDonald and Sarson’s work.
In fact, the LAWC was the first shelter to add NST victimization to their intake form in an effort to collect information on the number of women self-identifying as having experienced NST.
Non-state Torture is still torture
In one year, 62 per cent of women and girls being prostituted, trafficked and/or sexually exploited reported being tortured by their trafficker and/or sex purchaser.
In June 2018, Walker presented a brief on Trafficking In Canada to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights that included, “The experiences shared with front-line service providers, police and health care practitioners are so heinous that vicarious trauma counselling is necessary. Some are not able to remain employed in their professional fields.”
During her 25 years as executive director, Walker says that many women presented and shared their experiences of being tortured. Yet, she observes, “There is no legislation in Canada to validate their torture, although many judges will report women being tortured. There really is no way for those women to have their cases pursued through the courts in Canada on the ground of NST.”
Walker believes education about NST is imperative to allow everyone in society to understand the differences between NST, assault and aggravated assault.
That education needs to be survivor centred and rooted in feminist ideology. It needs to be shared with individuals, physicians, and the criminal justice system.
Peter Crib is married to a survivor of NST and residential school. He says, “NST is fueled by the misogynist toxicity that we live in these days. And, until that is addressed, the male dominance that takes place everywhere in our society, then this is going to go on for a very long time.”
UN must recognize all forms of torture
The UN has 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 agree torture is illegal, but NST is not included under that umbrella.
From November 14 to 17, the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice hosted a four-day exhibit at the UN Rotunda in Vienna to raise awareness of NST. The exhibit featured MacDonald and Sarson’s video, Persons Against Non-State Torture, their ground-breaking book and other materials that document the stories of survivors.
“Our next step as members of the Working Group of NST, within the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, is to develop a UN Declaration on Ending Non-State Torture,” said Sarson and MacDonald via email.
To that end, Sarson and MacDonald will attend the UN in Vienna on December 7 and as keynote speakers addressed the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. The hybrid meeting, Non-state torture: Enforce the Human Rights of Women and Girls, brought the issue before the principal policymaking body of the UN that addresses crime prevention and criminal justice.
Because NST is such a heinous act, MacDonald and Sarson once worked in a silo. Now, their work has international recognition and support. Their quest to have NST named a human rights crime has gained world-wide momentum and there is finally light at the end of this very long, dark journey.
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