Snelgrove sex assault complainant could be any one of us, protesters say

It's been five days since a police officer's sexual assault retrial ended without a verdict, but Heather Elliott is still fuming.

The St. John's graduate student has voiced her frustration every day since thenon the steps of the province's highest court.

"To have your entire experience thrown out and be told, OK, we have to start from square one, that's not fair," Elliott said Monday, sympathizing with the complainant, who has now testified twice in front of a jury.

"We want her to know that she's not alone."

Elliott said the struggle to obtain a fair trial in the ongoing Doug Snelgrove case which has remained unresolved since the alleged assault in 2014 highlights a broader issue with how the justice system treats sexual assault.

"The amount of women who don't come forward it's because of stuff like this," Elliott said, critical of the decision to declare a mistrial over what she says wasa technicality that she doesn't believe wouldhave tainted or handicapped the jury.

"We see how the system treats the victim who are brave enough to come forward, brave enough to stand their ground and to confront their accused and say, 'This is what happened.'"

Judge Garrett Handriganended the trial Friday, citing an error in how he dismissed additional jurors. His decision has reverberated throughout the city, reminiscent of community reaction after Snelgrove's acquittal in 2017.

Then, about 100 protesters showed up outside Supreme Court in support of the complainant.

This time around, only a handful can be seen holding signs, waving as passing cars honk in solidarity.

But that hasn't deterred protestor Ashley Boone, who saysher presence, at the very least,will show the complainant that her case isn't happening in a vacuum.

"It must be extremely frustrating for her to have to go through this all over again,very traumatizing every single time," she said.

"This woman could be any of us. Jane Doe could be me, could be you, could be any of our mothers, sisters. She has done the strong thing, the brave thing, the thing that everyone tells us to do when this stuff happens to us. And she's still being put through thewringer."

Thank you all over again

Others are offering support in the form of thank-you notes. Ashley MacDonald, who delivered handmade cards to the complainant's legal counsel in 2017, says she's collecting videos this time around.

MacDonald, herself a sexual assault survivor, knows what it's like to go public.

"She just had to tell everybody the story again. And now she's going to possibly have to do it a third time. That's going to be really hard," she said.

"You can feel very vulnerable in those moments. There's a little bit of a loss of control every time you tell that story. You don't hold all of that story, you've given it to other people."

MacDonald will compile those videos for the complainant to watch on a bad day."It's tangible," she said."It's something she can keep. We want something that she can go back to whenever she needs a boost."

Elliott plans to continue protesting daily until Snelgrove's arraignment on Monday. The Crown has said it intends to seek a third trial.

She saysone silver lining has emerged from the case: thrusting consent into the spotlight.

"In my personal experience, I was intoxicated and somebody took advantage of that situation. I know plenty of people who have unfortunately been in a similar situation where you're inebriated, you can't consent, and you figure, 'Well, I was drunk,'" she said.

"That was the narrative a lot of us grew up with: if you don't want something bad to happen to you, don't drink so much."

Since the case began, she's noticed that myth pushed to the forefront.

"It's been very important to have those conversations about what consent means, what consent looks like, what consent looks like if you are drunk or you're intoxicated, if you are sober and your partner is drunk," she said.

"We are able to have these conversations now, because it means a lot of us are able to start processing what happened to us and say, 'OK, it wasn't my fault.'"

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