text: A judge has resigned over his conduct of a rape trial in the face of a blistering recommendation for his removal from a national disciplinary body. 
   
   Federal Court Justice Robin Camp had asked a complainant in a 2014 rape trial why she did not keep her knees together, and mocked the law of consent. At a hearing conducted last fall by a disciplinary panel established by the Canadian Judicial Council, the 19-year-old homeless complainant said Justice Camp’s comment made her hate herself and feel like a slut. After the panel unanimously recommended his removal, Justice Camp went to great lengths to save his job. He publicly apologized to the complainant and his fellow judges. 
   
   Justice minister on resignation of 'knees together’ judge (The Canadian Press) 
   
   He called his knees-together comment “unforgivable,” and acknowledged that he had perceived the complainant’s fragility. He attended in-depth counselling and education sessions with several feminist scholars, three of whom testified at his disciplinary hearing last fall (attended daily by his wife and daughter) that he was sincerely interested in changing. 
   
   Related: Before Justice Camp, these two judges were recommended for removal 
   
   Unfounded: Police dismiss 1 in 5 sexual assault claims as baseless, Globe investigation reveals 
   
   And he fought for an opportunity to appear in person before the larger body of judicial council members who considered the panel’s recommendation, to explain to them that he had acted out of “ignorance, not animus.” 
   
   The council would receive only written submissions from him. 
   
   By a vote of 19 to 4, the judicial council said in its ruling released on Thursday that the deep harm Justice Camp had done to public confidence made his dismissal necessary. 
   
   “We find that the Judge’s conduct, viewed in its totality and in light of all of its consequences, was so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the Judge incapable of executing the judicial office,” the council said. 
   
   All four dissenters, who found Judge Camp guilty of misconduct but opposed his dismissal, are male, and from the Atlantic provinces (one is Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada). 
   
   Alice Woolley, the president of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics and a law professor at the University of Calgary, who, along with three other professors, filed the first complaint against Justice Camp, said she is pleased with the outcome. 
   
   “I don’t think anything would have been served by carrying this on any further,” she said. “The denunciation was unequivocal. I think [resigning] was the admirable decision on his part and the right thing to do.” 
   
   Constance Backhouse, chair in sexual assault legislation at the University of Ottawa’s law school, said rape myths are still pervasive in the justice system and society. 
   
   “Our legal system still remains mired in 19th-century stereotypes about women, who are suspected of duplicity, promiscuity, malice, and false testimony,” she said. “And our legal thinking reflects the wider culture, which shares far too many of these notions. Until we get over the premise that it is women alone who are responsible for protecting themselves from rape, I suspect we will see more such trials and more protests demanding a woman’s right to sexual autonomy.” 
   
   The law of consent and the judiciary’s handling of sexual-assault trials continue to create controversy. In Nova Scotia, a judge acquitted a taxi driver last week of sexually assaulting a female passenger, saying “a drunk can consent.” That ruling is under appeal. The woman was so drunk she had urinated on herself and passed out in the back seat. 
   
   Recommendations that judges in effect be fired are rare in the Canadian system, which deems judicial independence a cornerstone. Justice Camp is only the third judge whose removal has been recommended since the judicial council was established in 1971. Both of the others also resigned rather than be removed under a provision of the Constitution that requires Parliament to approve dismissing a judge. 
   
   Justice Camp’s comments came in the trial of Alexander Wagar in Calgary. The ruling came to light a year later, when the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned it, saying the judge had applied myths and stereotypes about sexual-assault victims. (By then, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper had promoted him from provincial court.) The judicial council received scores of complaints. Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley asked for the public disciplinary hearing. “On reviewing the transcripts, I felt it was important that victims know this was not an acceptable way to be treated by the justice system,” Ms. Ganley said in an e-mail to The Globe after Justice Camp resigned. 
   
   Justice Camp, a father of three, received his law degree in 1975 from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, passed exams in Canada in 1998 and was admitted to the Alberta bar in 1999. In 2012, the Progressive Conservative government of Alison Redford appointed him to the Provincial Court. Before then, he practised business law in Calgary. 
   
   Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould brought a motion to the House of Commons in which she declared the government’s intent to support the recommendation for removal. Shortly afterward, Justice Camp issued a brief statement through his lawyer, Frank Addario of Toronto, expressing his “sincere apology to everyone who was hurt by my comments during the Wagar trial.” 
   
   With a report from Patrick White 
   
   Report Typo/Error ||||| A judge who asked a sexual assault complainant why she couldn't keep her “knees together” confirmed he will resign after the Canadian Judicial Council recommended his removal. 
   
   Justice Robin Camp issued a statement Thursday in which he said he will resign from the Federal Court of Canada effective Friday. 
   
   “I would like to express my sincere apology to everyone who was hurt by my comments,” Camp’s statement went on. 
   
   "I thank everyone who was generous and kind to me and my family in the last 15 months, particularly my legal team." 
   
   The Canadian Judicial Council’s report called Camp’s conduct “so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that the judge was rendered incapable of executing the judicial office." 
   
   Justice Camp’s lawyer Frank Addario had argued that removal was not necessary to preserve public confidence in this case. Four of the council's 23 members did not support removal. 
   
   Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was in the process of moving forward on the council’s recommendation in Parliament Thursday when she learned of Camp’s resignation. 
   
   Wilson-Raybould later told reporters that the extremely rare removal would have been needed “to ensure the integrity and public confidence in the justice system and the judiciary.” 
   
   “Sexual assault and gender-based violence is in no form acceptable and we will continue to stand up for victims of sexual assault and gender-based violence,” Wilson-Raybould added. 
   
   Norman Sabourin, Executive Director and Senior General Council at the Canadian Judicial Council, told CTV News Channel removals are recommended when the “public has lost confidence in a judge’s ability to discharge the duties of office.” 
   
   “The report of the council emphasizes that all judges have to know the law but also have to possess empathy, have to understand that people who come before them are often vulnerable people and they have to treat them with a degree of civility and deference,” Sabourin said. 
   
   Camp, who was appointed to the federal court in 2015, faced judicial review after it was revealed that he had stated in a 2014 Alberta provincial court decision that "pain and sex sometimes go together” and asked the complainant why she didn’t just “keep her knees together.” He also said, "Young wom[e]n want to have sex, particularly if they're drunk." 
   
   Alexander Wagar was acquitted by Camp. 
   
   Alberta’s Appeal Court ordered a new trial and last month Wagar was again acquitted. 
   
   The complainant, who was 19 at the time of the first trial, told the disciplinary hearing last year that Camp's comments had made her hate herself. She said she had contemplated suicide as a result of her experience. 
   
   After Thursday’s decision, the complainant said "I was feeling so unhopeful and pretty down and not very hopeful about the justice system but it has kind of turned around by this.” 
   
   ‘Watershed moment’ 
   
   Alice Woolley, the University of Calgary law professor who complained about Camp’s conduct, said she was pleased with the decision. 
   
   “Actors within the legal system can make really terrible decisions and terrible mistakes and in his case engage in real misconduct,” she said. 
   
   “But the legal system orients towards progress,” she added. “It tries to get it right in the end.” 
   
   Kathleen Mahoney, who is also a law professor at the University of Calgary, told CTV News Channel that she believes the removal is a “watershed moment” in how courts treat sexual assault. 
   
   “I think this is a very strong statement from the judges of Canada that the time has come that gender bias in these kinds of decisions will no longer be tolerated,” she said. 
   
   Mahoney added that she believes the case highlights the need for mandatory judicial training focusing on gendered issues such sexual assault, domestic violence and sexual harassment. 
   
   The Conservatives have introduced legislation that would require better training for judges in handling sexual assault cases. The justice minister agreed Thursday that judges need to be properly trained. 
   
   Camp’s decision is not the only recent case to raise questions about how judges handle sexual assault. 
   
   In Halifax earlier this month, Justice Gregory Lenehan acquitted a taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting a passenger so intoxicated that she passed out. 
   
   Lenehan said in his ruling that “clearly, a drunk can consent.” 
   
   With a report from CTV’s Glen McGregor and files from The Canadian Press ||||| Federal Court Justice Robin Camp, dubbed the "knees together judge" for his comments in a sex assault case, has submitted his resignation following a recommendation from Canada's judicial watchdog that he be removed from the bench. 
   
   In a ruling announced Thursday afternoon, the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) said that at a 2014 sexual assault trial he was presiding over, Camp "showed obvious disdain for some of the characteristics of the regime enacted by Parliament in respect of sexual assault issues." 
   
   "We find that the judge's conduct, viewed in its totality and in light of all of its consequences, was so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the judge incapable of executing the judicial office," the council's ruling reads. 
   
   In a statement from his lawyer, Camp announced his intention to resign and apologized. 
   
   "I have advised Chief Justice Crampton that effective March 10, 2017, I will resign as a member of the Federal Court of Canada," the statement read. 
   
   "I would like to express my sincere apology to everyone who was hurt by my comments during the [sex assault] trial. I thank everyone who was generous and kind to me and my family in the last 15 months, particularly my legal team." 
   
   Before Camp's statement was issued, Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould rose in the House of Commons seeking unanimous consent for a motion to remove Camp from the bench, but that consent was denied. 
   
   Conservative Saskatchewan MP Tom Lukiwksi then rose on a point of order and complained the minister had not ensured she had the unanimous consent of all parties before moving her motion. 
   
   Votes in both the House of Commons and the Senate are required to remove a federal judge, a move presumably no longer required with Camp's resignation. 
   
   Wilson-Raybould told reporters on Parliament Hill she learned of Camp's decision after she sought support for her motion. 
   
   The unexpected move by the federal Justice Minister was stopped by an opposition MP 1:05 
   
   Court transcripts from the 2014 sexual assault trial show Camp, who was then a provincial court judge, called the complainant, who was homeless and 19 years old at the time of the alleged assault, "the accused" numerous times — a mistake he repeated at the judicial council hearing before correcting himself. 
   
   Camp also told the young woman "pain and sex sometimes go together" and asked why she didn't just keep her "knees together." 
   
   'Antithetical' to contemporary values 
   
   The judge apologized several times for those comments, underwent counselling and took additional training on Canada's sexual assault laws. 
   
   But that wasn't enough for the CJC. 
   
   "The statements made by Justice Camp during the trial and in his decision, the values implicit in those statements and the way in which he conducted himself are so antithetical to the contemporary values of our judicial system with respect to the manner in which complainants in sexual assault cases should be treated that, in our view, confidence in the system cannot be maintained unless the system disassociates itself from the image which the judge, by his statements and approach, represents in the mind of a reasonable member of the public," wrote the majority. 
   
   Parliament considers training for judges 
   
   NDP MP Murray Rankin said that by resigning, Camp took the only course of action available in light of the conclusions of the judicial council. 
   
   Rankin added that Camp's case bolsters a private member's bill by interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose to ensure judges know Canada's sexual assault laws. Parliament voted unanimously this week to send that bill to committee for further study. 
   
   Ambrose, in a statement welcoming the council's ruling, said her bill was designed to hold the judiciary responsible for the ongoing training of its judges. 
   
   "Unfortunately, there is not enough accountability on the part of the judiciary in ensuring that judges have the updated training Canadians expect them to have. This needs to change," Ambrose said in the statement. 
   
   Until Thursday, Camp had fought hard to keep his job. 
   
   He asked to speak directly to the 23 chief and associate chief justices who make up the CJC. But the majority said Camp had already "been fully and fairly heard," and declined saying nothing had changed since his public hearing last fall. 
   
   Camp then asked the Federal Court to stop the judicial council from deliberating his fate and to review an earlier decision he be dismissed. His lawyer Frank Addario argued the judicial council should consider the fact that Alexander Scott Wager, the man who was accused of sexual assault in the original trial, had once again been acquitted. The judge refused to stall the CJC. 
   
   Since the council's creation in 1971, no judge has gone to such lengths to keep his job. There have only been two other cases where the council recommended Parliament remove a judge from the bench and in both cases the men resigned almost immediately. 
   
   Just like any other judge facing discipline, Camp's legal battle has been paid for by taxpayers through the Commission for Federal Judicial Affairs, which has refused to say how much it has cost so far. 
   
   Four judges dissented from the majority and said Camp should not lose his job because he has rehabilitated himself through counselling and further education.
target: – A judge who asked a 19-year-old woman why she couldn't have just kept her legs together to prevent being raped has quit rather than be forced out. Justice Robin Camp resigned from the Federal Court of Canada Thursday after members of the country's judicial watchdog voted 19 to 4 in favor of removing him, the CBC reports. In widely condemned remarks during the 2014 rape trial, Camp repeatedly referred to the complainant as "the accused" and wondered why she hadn't done more to fight off the 240-pound defendant. When she testified that the incident had been painful, Camp, who acquitted the defendant, said, "Sex and pain sometimes go together, that's not necessarily a bad thing." Camp, after admitting that his thinking was "infected" with "stereotypical beliefs and discredited myths," fought hard to keep his job, attending counseling classes and publicly apologizing to the defendant, but the Canadian Judicial Council determined that his conduct had undermined public confidence so much that he was "incapable of executing the judicial office," the Globe and Mail reports. "I would like to express my sincere apology to everyone who was hurt by my comments," Camp said, per CTV News. The rape complainant, who told a hearing last year that she hated herself and considered suicide after Camp's comments, said the council's decision made her feel a lot more hopeful about the justice system.