Rehtaeh Parsons and the Bully Harper

It's hard to imagine a worse horror story.

A young woman is sexually assaulted, and publicly humiliated.

Her school does nothing. A  police investigation goes nowhere.

Then she is bullied, and then she kills herself.

But still it gets worse. Because now there are vigilantes, and calls for mob justice. And Stephen Harper is using all that to try to cover-up one horror with another. Trying to play up the crime, and downplay the bullying.

The prime minister said what Rehtaeh claims happened to her goes beyond bullying. "I think we've got to stop using just the term bullying to describe some of these things. Bullying to me has a kind of connotation … of kids misbehaving.

What we are dealing with in some of these circumstances is simply criminal activity. It is youth criminal activity, it is violent criminal activity, it is sexual criminal activity and it is often internet criminal activity," said Harper.

As if bullying was just "kids misbehaving." As if it wasn't bullying that killed Rehtaeh.

The cruelty, the public humiliation.

The relentless bullying she couldn't escape...

“She was never left alone. Her friends turned against her, people harassed her, boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking asking her to have sex with them since she had had sex with their friends. It just never stopped...”

Anyone who doesn't understand that, either can't remember what it was like to be young. Or went to school before they invented the internet.

But of course, that's not what Stephen Harper, the worst bully this country has ever known, wants you to believe. Because him and his foul Cons would rather not remind Canadians how they recently killed a plan for a national anti-bullying strategy.

Votes from a handful of Conservative backbenchers weren’t enough to push through an NDP proposal to strike an all-party committee to study and craft a national anti-bullying strategy.

Just to pleasure their rabid religious base, who fear that anti-bullying programs will stop them from abusing gay kids.

Even though so many Canadian children are being bullied to death...

Even though national anti-bullying programs have proved effective in helping to save the lives of young people in other countries. Where there are governments willing to tackle the problem, and know that only EDUCATION can solve it.

Unlike the Harper Cons who would use this tragedy to push their fascist law and order agenda. And would rather spend millions on their fraudulent Porky Action Plan ads, than create a national ad campaign aimed at saving the lives of Canadian kids.

Oh well. I've been fighting bullies on this blog for eight years, and before that I fought them in school. And this latest tragedy will only motivate me to fight them and the bully Cons even harder.

Rehtaeh Parsons, Amanda Todd deaths share shocking similarities

 

Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons lived on opposite ends of the country. They had never met, but sadly, had so much in common.

Both teens were bullied. Both were assaulted and exploited through social media.

They both committed suicide: Parsons last month in Nova Scotia, Todd last year in British Columbia.
Their stories have attracted international attention and touched those who’ve heard them.
They’ve also left many scratching their heads wondering how something like that could happen, not just once but twice.
But, if you talk to experts familiar with their struggles, they’re clear: It’s not a matter of “if” this will happen again, but “when.”
Corina Morrison and Megan Walker know all to well how easily something similar could play out here.

“We are losing too many kids,” said Morrison, co-founder of the London Anti-Bullying Coalition. “We are missing something as a society, whether it is empathy, respect, fear of consequences, I am not sure. But we are really missing something.”

Morrison and Walker, executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre, said men must step up to the plate and end the cycle of violence towards women — young and old.

“We know one in three women will experience sexual assault and rape, and fewer than 10 per cent will report it to police,” Walker said. “We need to start teaching boys at a very young age that being masculine means you are able to convey empathy, compassion and sensitivity.”

Rehtaeh Parsons to be remembered with vigils and protest

People in Halifax are planning two vigils to pay tribute to Rehtaeh Parsons, a teenager who died after a suicide attempt. Her mother said her death followed an alleged rape and months of cyberbullying.

No charges have been laid in the case.

Rehtaeh’s death has angered many people in the community, including Gay MacKay, whose daughter goes to Cole Harbour High, the same school that Rehtaeh attended.

“She doesn’t want to go to school anymore,” MacKay said of her daughter. “She knows who these people are who pushed her to die.”

MacKay wants to see justice served. She’s planning a candlelight vigil in Cole Harbour Friday night in Rehtaeh’s memory.

“I just want her mother to see that there are people who may not know her directly, but there are people that love her and support her mother. I want to show that support because I’m sorry, 17 years old and she’s not coming back,” MacKay said.

Another vigil is planned in Halifax’s Victoria Park. It’s expected to start at 7 p.m. Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the online hacking group Anonymous is taking a different approach. It’s calling for people to hold a peaceful demonstration outside police headquarters to demand justice this weekend.

The call for justice have prompted the RCMP to warn against vigilante action.

Experts say more needs to be done

Like many others, Irene Smith has been touched by the Rehtaeh Parsons story.

Smith is the executive director of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in Halifax. She calls this situation a wake-up call.

“Many, many young people that come through our doors report the same thing,” she said. “This is not an isolated incident.”

In Nova Scotia, specially trained nurses are only available in Halifax and Antigonish. From March 2011 to March 2012, those nurses saw 119 sexual assault cases in Halifax. Of those, 63 per cent were women between the ages of 13 and 25.

Smith said the assaults often involve alcohol and multiple perpetrators. She said many assaults are witnessed and photographed, which often leads to the harassment and re-victimization of the victim.

Smith said there’s a need for more specially trained nurses through the province.

“I do hear reports across the province about patients not getting appropriate care just simply because of lack of resources and lack of training. Not because staff don’t care.”

Health Minister Dave Wilson said he is confident in the level of care people receive outside of Halifax and Antigonish.

“We have a lot of dedicated health care professionals on all levels who, through their training, know how to deal with someone who has been sexually assaulted," he said.

Wilson said he is looking at how to expand the program across Nova Scotia.

Another Sexting Tragedy

The suicides of Rehtaeh Parsons and Audrie Pott should make us ask how the law could better deal with kids who maliciously circulate sexual photos.

What is this madness? That’s the question I’ve heard over and over on Friday from people who care about the lives and health of teenagers. This week, Canada is in an uproar over whether a group of boys should be prosecuted for sending around humiliating photos of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, a girl from Halifax who said the boys raped her. And on Thursday, three 16-year-old boys were arrested in San Jose, Calif. for sexually assaulting 15-year-old Audrie Pott, who was also humiliated by online photos.

The worst of the awful similarities in these stories is that both girls killed themselves. Audrie hanged herself about seven months ago, eight days after the assault. Rehtaeh hanged herself last weekend, months after the police said they would not prosecute anyone. On Friday afternoon, the Halifax police, citing “new and credible information,” said they would reopen the case.

That is a relief. Still, as we pick through the wreckage of these sad stories, I’m trying to think about a better way to get at some of the harm.

Set aside, for the moment, the alleged assaults. There is a long-standing problem of proof when allegations of rape are made, especially among people who know each other and when drinking or drugs are involved—though the convictions in Steubenville, Ohio, show it can be done. Maybe the Steubenville result, in which a judge found the boys guilty for a sexual assault that the victim could not really remember, will wind up being the just ending to Audrie and Rehtaeh’s cases, too.

But there is also the circulation of the compromising photos, which created a trail of digital evidence. In light of that, we should have a clear way to bring charges against the instigators—a way that recognizes that the boys involved were teenagers, not adults.

Whoever is responsible for circulating the photos of Rehtaeh could be charged under Canada’s child pornography laws. A conviction would come with a mandatory minimum sentence, Canadian Attorney General Rob Nicholson emphasized in a statement about Rehtaeh’s case Thursday.

In a situation like this, where outrage is understandably everywhere, it’s hard to think about tempering justice with mercy. Believe me, I know that. And for these boys, child pornography charges may well be warranted. But most of the time, charging teenagers as child pornographers shouldn’t be the only option. We should have laws that offer a middle ground between no charges at all and heavy prison sentences with a lifetime on the sex-offender register. We should have laws that specifically and deliberately address teen sexting.

The key is to distinguish between one kid consensually sending one other kid a sexual photo and one kid sending out a photo that the pictured teenager has not consented to at all. It’s not that the first kind of sexting is a good idea—it’s that kids shouldn’t get caught up in the criminal justice system for it, whereas nonconsensual sexting is a different story. “We should draw the line between my daughter stupidly sending a photo of herself to her boyfriend and her boyfriend sending it to all his friends to humiliate her,” Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center told me. “The first is stupid. The second is more troubling and should be criminal.”

In the U.S., states have been trying to sort out sexting laws for the past few years. Levick says that not enough lawmakers are picking up on the distinction she makes. Pennsylvania, for example, passed a law with criminal penalties for juvenile sexting with malicious intent—helpful—but also made consensual sexting a misdemeanor.

I know that in Canada now isn’t the right time to focus on these nuances. Not now, while Rehtaeh’s case is still unfolding. Members of the hacker collective Anonymous, who have been investigating, say they have identified the boys who allegedly raped and photographed her. The Canadian police emphasized that the new information that led them to reopen the case “did not come from an online source.” Still, as in Steubenville, the online pressure played a real role.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also helped Friday when he said he was “sickened” by Rehtaeh’s death. He pointed out—sensibly—that it’s a misnomer to use the word bullying for the treatment she endured—the circulation of the photos and the slut-shaming that followed. “I think we’ve got to stop just using just the term bullying to describe some of these things. Bullying to me has a connotation of kind of kids misbehaving. What we are dealing with in some of these circumstances is simply criminal activity,” Harper said. “It is youth criminal activity. It is violent criminal activity. It is sexual criminal activity, and it is often Internet criminal activity.”

I couldn’t agree more. And that’s why the criminal justice system should take this conduct seriously enough to develop a better response. Something that will at least help other kids should come out of all the sorrow.

Anonymous threatens to name four who 'raped' suicide teen

HACKTIVIST group Anonymous has threatened to expose the identities of four boys who allegedly gang raped Canadian teenager Rehtaeh Parsons. The 17-year-old later killed herself after photographs of the assault were shared around her school.

The Parsons family claim her suicide was the result of two years of bullying following the attack at a friend's house party in November 2011. Her mother Leah Parsons said the teenager hanged herself after images of the assault were circulated and some classmates labelled her a "slut", the Toronto Sun reports.

Police did not arrest anyone at the time of incident, citing a lack of evidence. Rehtaeh’s father Glen Canning said his daughter was "disappointed to death" rather than "bullied to death" because of the failure of the police and her school to act.

"What were they looking for if photos and bragging weren’t enough?" he asked in an emotional blog post about his late daughter.

Now, Anonymous has said they know the identity of two of Parsons's attackers. The group have demanded police in Nova Scotia, the Canadian province where the teen lived and died, take action. In a statement released late last night, it said: "What we want is justice. And that’s your job. So do it."

Nova Scotia's Justice Minister Ross Landry later hit back at the online collective, saying: "We don’t want another child taking their life because some vigilante group thinks it’s OK. Maybe it’s a wrong name - then what would they do to someone?"

Landry is considering a review of how the case was handled in the wake of outrage over Parsons's suicide, according to Canada’s National Post.

In 2012 Anonymous publicly identified the man who allegedly drove 15-year-old Canadian teen Amanda Todd to suicide after years of cyber-bullying. Todd’s mother said she had written to Leah Parsons expressing her sympathy.

Rehtaeh Parsons suicide, rape case: More than 100 gather at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada funeral

More than 100 people gathered at a church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday for the funeral of a 17-year-old girl who hanged herself after she was allegedly gang-raped and then bullied when a picture of the incident went viral.

Mourners at St. Mark's Anglican Church remembered Rehtaeh Parsons for her caring nature and love of animals, CNN affiliate CTV reported.

Her cousin, Angela, said the eulogy included "memorable stories of our beloved Rehtaeh."

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter attended the funeral.

"I came to the service today first and foremost as a father trying to imagine what kind of incredible, unfathomable grief could be visited upon a family, and to try and be supportive in this very, very difficult time," he said.

Rehtaeh was taken off life support last weekend, three days after she hanged herself.

Her family says she developed suicidal thoughts after she was sexually assaulted two years ago, and after a picture of the incident was shared by phone and online.

The high school student became despondent, especially after a police investigation ended without criminal charges, her mother wrote on a Facebook tribute page.


"Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought that raping a 15-year-old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun," Leah Parsons wrote. "All the bullying and messaging and harassment that never let up are also to blame. Lastly, the justice system failed her. Those are the people that took the life of my beautiful girl."

As news of her death spread, so did outrage that police did not file any sexual assault or child pornography charges -- even though authorities confirmed a photograph allegedly showing the teen having sex with one of the boys was circulated to friends' mobile phones and computers.

A joint investigation by Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local authorities found "insufficient evidence to proceed with charges," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scott MacRae said earlier this week.

But on Friday, eastern Canadian police announced they are reopening the investigation.

The HRM Partners in Policing -- which includes Halifax Regional Police and a locally based division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- said in a statement it was reviewing the case "in light of new and credible information" that has recently been brought forward to police.

A demand for answers

By late Saturday, more than 200,000 people signed a petition demanding an independent investigation on how police handled the case.

The lead petitioner described the decision to reopen the case as "a great step," but said "if we want real justice -- we need to find out why the RCMP did not lay charges in the first place."

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scott MacRae said the new information that led authorities to reopen their investigation "did not come from an online source."

"We can talk to a witness, we can verify the person, we can substantiate some of the information that has come forth, and that is a good thing," MacRae said.

MacRae said investigators hope reopening the case will encourage those with information to come forward, "but we have to advise the public that we can't accept reports through social media."

A disturbing trend

The Nova Scotia case is one of several involving reports of a teenage girl being raped and then humiliated after photos of the alleged attacks went viral.

In California, three teenage boys are facing charges of sexual battery in connection with the alleged rape of 15-year-old Audrie Pott, who later committed suicide. Santa Clara County Sheriff's detectives said Audrie had too much to drink at a party and was passed out when the boys allegedly assaulted her.

The boys are accused of taking photos of the attack and sharing them at school, as well as texting the images and posting them online.

And in Ohio, two high school football players were convicted last month of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl. Graphic text messages, social media posts and cell phone pictures and videos emerged in court. The trial divided the football-crazed town of Steubenville.

The case caught the attention of bloggers and Anonymous, a loosely organized hacking activist group.

A warning from Anonymous

Anonymous has also expressed outrage over the Canada case and said it might release the names of teens linked to the alleged rape in an effort to force authorities to pursue prosecution.

The group told Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry that "justice is in your hands and supports the legal machinery to move forward with charges."

"Better act fast," Anonymous warned Canadian law enforcement in a statement.

"We do not approve of vigilante justice as the media claims. That would mean we approve of violent actions against these rapists at the hands of an unruly mob," the group said. "What we want is justice. And that's your job. So do it."

Jason Barnes, partner of the teen's mother, said the family does not "support the publishing of the names" in the case, which has

Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/world/rehtaeh-parsons-suicide-rape-case-more-than-100-gather-at-halifax-nova-scotia-canada-funeral#ixzz2R1LIsuTg

Who failed Rehtaeh Parsons? Almost everyone

 We got a taste of the phenomenon recently in the Steubenville, Ohio, case where two high school football players were convicted of recording their assault of a heavily intoxicated teenaged girl and posting the video online.

Admittedly, the boys, who were sent to prison for the attacks, might never have been convicted without the video as evidence. But the unnamed 16-year-old victim's degradation was dreadfully public in a way that previous generations couldn't imagine.

Closer to home, a 16-year-old girl was alleged to have been gang-raped at a rural rave in the Vancouver suburb of Pitt Meadows in 2010, the assault compounded when a bystander posted photos of the assault on Facebook.

Police couldn't amass enough evidence to prosecute the teen's alleged attackers and had to settle for charging 18-year-old Dennis Warrington for posting the photos that led the girl being harassed and bullied at school and on the web.

Warrington pleaded guilty to distributing obscene material and last month received a conditional discharge that takes effect once he completes 18 months of probation and community service.

Which brings us to Rehtaeh Parsons, who died Sunday as a result of a suicide attempt last week. The 17-year-old Cole Harbour, N.S., girl was allegedly gang-raped by four teens 18 months ago after being fed vodka at a friend's home. She was 15.

 

"She acted on an impulse but I truly in my heart of heart do not feel she meant to kill herself." - Leah Parso …Someone took a photo of the attack that was passed around her school and subsequently went viral in the larger community, according to her mother, Leah Parsons, who described her daughter's torment on a Facebook memorial page.

The attack and subsequent labelling of Rehtaeh as a "slut," by the boys ruined her young life, her mother said. She was subjected to a wave of online harassment via texts and Facebook posts.

“People texted her all the time, saying ‘Will you have sex with me?’” she told the Halifax Chronicle Herald. “Girls texting, saying ‘You’re such a slut.’”

"Rehtaeh was suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew, the harassment was so bad she had to move out of her own community to try to start anew in Halifax," Leah Parsons wrote on her daughter's memorial page.

"She struggled emotionally with depression and anger. Her thoughts of suicide began and fearing for her life, she placed herself in a hospital in an attempt to get help. She stayed there for almost 6 weeks. The bullying continued, her friends were not supportive."

She started smoking pot to deal with her anxiety and anger but struggled to find her way to a normal life. She suffered from mood swings and talked of committing suicide but told her mom "I could never do that to you because you would be devastated."

But last week she locked herself in the bathroom and hanged herself.

"She acted on an impulse but I truly in my heart of heart do not feel she meant to kill herself," her mother wrote. "By the time I broke into the bathroom it was too late."

The boys alleged to have raped Rehtaeh were not charged. The RCMP told CBC News they investigated and consulted with Crown prosecutors but concluded there was not enough evidence to produce convictions.

"We have to deal in facts and not rumours," RCMP Cpl. Scott MacRae said. "We may not be able to go down certain roads because of the tragic circumstance."

The Parsons family was told the photos were not a criminal issue even though Rehtaeh was underage, CBC News said.

Leah Parsons told the Chronicle Herald police could do nothing because "they couldn’t prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone."

Take away the sexual assault and Rehtaeh's story sounds a lot like that of Amanda Todd, the suburban Vancouver teen who committed suicide in the wake of horrendous bullying at school and in cyberspace after being lured into sending a nude photo of herself to an online stalker.

‘For the love of God do something’: Rehtaeh Parsons’ father issues emotional call to action after daughter killed by ‘disappointment’

Rehtaeh Parsons’s heart was so big, sometimes it scared her dad.

A defender of the downtrodden, Parsons was quick to hand out spare change and stand up for neglected animals.

Glen Canning prepared for the worst for his daughter after she was allegedly raped, but hoped he’d never have to face it.

Amid the angry noise generated by thousands of people around the world seeking justice for a Nova Scotia teenager, who was removed from life support on Sunday after attempting suicide a few days earlier, is the voice of a father in agony over the loss of his child.

In a heartbreaking entry posted to his personal website, Canning remembers his daughter and lambasts the justice system he says failed to help her.

“The worst nightmare of my life has just begun. I loved my beautiful baby with all my heart,” Canning writes. “She meant everything to me. I felt her heart beating in my soul from the moment she was born until the moment she died. We were a team. We were best pals.”

Canning explains how he watched his daughter suffer from repeated disappointment.

“My daughter wasn’t bullied to death, she was disappointed to death. Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police,” he writes.

Her mother, Leah Parsons, says her daughter was bullied mercilessly after four boys allegedly sexually assaulted her in 2011 and circulated a photo of the attack.

Police investigated the incident, which allegedly took place at a party when the girl was 15, and in consultation with the Crown, decided there was “insufficient evidence” to lay charges.

The story ofRehtaeh Parsons

The story is disturbingly familiar.

A teenage girl goes to some kind of get-together, maybe a party.

She is raped by multiple assailants.

The rape is photographed and distributed via social media.

The girl is subjected to horrifying acts of bullying and shaming. She is branded a slut. Her life becomes a living hell.

This girl is not Steubenville’s Jane Doe, although their stories bear a remarkable resemblance. This girl is Rehtaeh Parsons, a 17-year-old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, who hanged herself on April 4th, a year and a half after being raped. Her family took her off life support this past Sunday.

Reading the account of what happened to Rehtaeh is like watching a deadly accident slowly, methodically unfolding in front of you. And there are bystanders, plenty of bystanders, who had any number of opportunities to step in and do something, but none of them do.

And, in many ways, you are one of these bystanders, too. I am, too. We all are.

Rehtaeh did not have a rape kit done because she was too ashamed to tell anyone about her rape until several days later, at which point it was thought to be too late to retrieve medical evidence.

The boys (there were four of them) accused of raping Retaeh were not interviewed until long after the family tried to press charges.

They were not separated for their interviews; they were interviewed together, meaning that they were easily able to corroborate each others’ stories.

The investigation took over a year. In the end, it was decided that there was insufficient evidence of sexual assault, no charges were laid, and the boys got off scot free.

No legal action was taken with regards to the photographs of the rape that were distributed through social media. Rehtaeh’s mother was told that this was because there was no way of proving who had taken the pictures.

Rehtaeh struggled to survive for seventeen months. She moved to Halifax, unable to cope with the fact that her rapists were also her high school classmates. She checked herself into the hospital when she felt suicidal and stayed there for six weeks. She made new friends. She saw a therapist. She fought to live. She fought hard.

And then one day, she couldn’t fight any longer.

And when I read her story, I can’t help but wonder:

Where the fuck were all the grownups?

Where were the grownups who were supposed to love her and protect her? Where were the grownups who should have kept her safe? Where were the grownups who were supposed to make sure that she received some kind of justice for what she suffered?

And I don’t mean her parents, because it’s clear that they, too, have been struggling for the past seventeen months, doing what they can to try to help and advocate for their daughter. I mean where the fuck were the school officials, the members of the law enforcement, the people who should have made sure that she had adequate follow-up mental health care after her hospitalization? Where were they, and why didn’t they do anything? Or if they did do something, why didn’t they do enough?

Rehtaeh’s rapists are still out there. They are still in high school, they are still going to parties and they are, quite likely, still raping. Why wouldn’t they? They got away with it once, didn’t they? Rehtaeh’s rapists are still living normal, untroubled lives, and she is dead.

She’s dead, but even in the wake of her suicide and the attention her case has gained, government officials are refusing to review why the RCMP declined  to lay charges against Rehtaeh’s rapist.

Instead, Nova Scotia’s justice minister, Ross Landry, released this fucking joke of a statement:

“As a community, we need to have more dialogue with our young people about respect and about support to educate our young boys and our young girls about what’s appropriate behaviour, what’s not appropriate behaviour,” Landry said.
“We have to make sure that we’re cognizant about what gets online and what doesn’t get online and what the impacts are, so it’s having that dialogue.
“That still doesn’t take away the fact that we’ve lost a beautiful young woman … and I’m very upset about the loss.”

Saying that we need to educate boys and girls about appropriate behaviour is victim-blaming. Saying that this wouldn’t have been a problem if the pictures hadn’t ended up online is like saying that rape is fine, but publicly broadcasting it isn’t. Calling Rehtaeh’s death a tragedy because we’ve lost a beautiful young woman is a joke – seriously, what bearing does her appearance have on how sad her death is? And since Landry is refusing to open an official review into how the RCMP handled this, isn’t he basically saying, “I think she was lying about the rape, but gosh, she sure was hot”?

All of this, every single word of this statement, all of the things that Rehtaeh endured, every single detail presented here is rape culture.

This is rape culture. This is our culture.

I never thought in a million years that I’d be saying this, but I wish that Rehtaeh’s case had had the same outcome as Jane Doe’s. Because while Jane Doe had to endure some spectacularly vile, awful shit, at least she made it out alive. At least her rapists suffered consequences. At least her case actually made it to trial.

This is Rehtaeh Parsons. When she was fifteen, she was raped by four boys. When she was seventeen, she committed suicide.

She is dead because we, as a society, failed her.

There is a petition up demanding an inquiry into the police investigation of Rehtaeh’s rape. I’m not sure if it will do anything to help, but signing it sure as hell won’t hurt. Right now, this petition and bringing awareness to what happened to Rehtaeh seem like the only concrete ways of helping her. Right now, I need to do something, anything to stop myself from feeling like a bystander. I’m not going to just shake my head and sigh over this. I’m going to raise my voice until everyone knows what happened to Rehtaeh.

Edited to add:

Ross Landry now says that he will be moving forward with a review of Rehtaeh’s case. Thank God. An excerpt from the article I linked to:

Justice Minister Ross Landry said today, April 9, he has asked senior government officials to present options, as soon as possible, to review the Rehtaeh Parsons case.

“This situation is tragic, I am deeply saddened – as I think are all Nova Scotians – by the death of this young woman,” said Mr. Landry. “As a parent, I can’t imagine the pain this family is going through at this time. My thoughts are with them.”

Mr. Landry said he hopes to meet with Leah Parsons, Rehtaeh’s mother, to discuss her experience with the justice system.

“I know that law enforcement and the public prosecution service do their best, every day, to administer and enforce the law,” said Mr. Landry. “It’s important that Nova Scotians have faith in the justice system and I am committed to exploring the mechanisms that exist to review the actions of all relevant authorities to ensure the system is always working to the best of its ability, in pursuit of justice.”

Mr. Landry said he has been reviewing details of the case and consulting with officials throughout the day, and expects options within the next few days.

Is hacktivism on behalf of Rehtaeh Parsons a revolution in rape campaigning?

Halifax, Nova Scotia, with its population of a little under 400,000, is promoted as a place devoted to outdoor pursuits, with over 150 parks. But on Sunday 14 April, a large group of people gathered outside the police station in protest against something far from wholesome. "Do your job. Do your job," the protesters chanted, in response to the death a week ago of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, who committed suicide after allegedly being raped by four boys, photographed during the attack and then viciously bullied. "Do your job," the protesters warned police, "before somebody else does it for you."

Several protesters wore V for Vendetta masks, the distinctive white masks worn by members of hacktivist network Anonymous, which had called for the protest in a bid to force Canadian authorities to review the decision not to press charges against anyone following Parsons' rape complaint in November 2011. Anonymous claims to have identified two of the alleged rapists and believes it is only a matter of time before it knows them all.

"We engaged #OpJustice4Rehtaeh in response to her suicide," Anonymous explained in a video broadcast last week. "We want the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] to take immediate action against the individuals in question … We do not approve of vigilante action. The names will be kept until it becomes apparent you have no intention of providing justice. Better act fast."

In response Corporal Scott MacRae of the Halifax Regional Municipality, the province's local government body, said: "It's concerning … that people may be wanting to take any form of vigilante action. Opinions and rumours are being taken as a truth. Innocent people could be impacted."

MacRae also asserts that a year-long investigation into the alleged rape was carried out but the decision was taken "not to proceed with criminal charges due to insufficient evidence".

The response was ambivalent. On several blogs, Twitter and Facebook, people are calling for the boys to be named. But in the Canadian press, they're asking who made Anonymous the judge and jury. "As if contemplating a tormented child taking her own life isn't horrible enough, we must now live with online blame-mobs grabbing hold of a narrative and demanding justice, and not necessarily in a courtroom," wrote Chris Selley of the National Post.

Critics including Selley highlight the death of Amanda Todd, another Canadian teen who ended her life after being targeted by sexual extortionists, and whose alleged tormentor Anonymous outed in 2012, as evidence of what happens when "they finger the wrong culprit". The response from Anonymous was that the absence of arrests didn't mean their information was wrong but is "another example of how lazy and ill-equipped the police are in handling these types of crimes".

It's intriguing to see Anonymous involved in rape cases like this. From its involvement in Wikileaks and Scientology, to its decision to display the details of Kim Kardashian's bank account just for the "lulz", they seem to swing wildly from the pursuit of justice to the causing of chaos.

But Anonymous's involvement in the recent high-profile case of sexual assault at Steubenville High School, Ohio, in which an incapacitated 16-year-old was assaulted by two boys, while others took pictures, was something of a PR coup for the network. "I really think that the heroes in this story are the hackers who got the photos out there because I think that actually led to a kind of shaming process that pushed this trial forward," said journalist Dave Zirin. Anonymous published a video that showed the rapists revelling in their crime. "She is so raped," one boy laughed, before comparing the victim's unconscious form to "JFK, OJ's wife, Trayvon Martin". Subsequently, Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17 were sentenced to one year and two years respectively in juvenile detention for the assault.

If sexual assault has a ghastly new pattern in the internet age – a girl is raped, someone whips out their phone to record it, the resulting pictures aren't treated as evidence of a crime but a tool with which to taunt the victim – then Anonymous's involvement is about more than a collective sense of public anger about these assaults, it could also represent a turning point in the way local communities and the authorities deal with rape allegations.

"In these cases it is not only a question of bringing things to light, but also changing how they are seen," observes Sadie Plant, an academic with a background in the social potential of technology. "They're drawing attention to actions and power relations [that] haven't been tackled with the same urgency before. So in terms of broad tendencies, technologies of surveillance may be one side of the coin, but this kind of [reaction to] news making is clearly the other, and very powerful, counterpart."

A natural sense of excitement surrounds the subversive way that Anonymous operates, and the idea that rape victims, so often let down by the authorities, suddenly have an ally feels righteous. But critics of Anonymous maintain they are not to be trusted. Jennifer Emick, a self-described internet geek and former Anonymous member, came to virtual blows with the network when she disagreed with some of their practices and left to set up her own hacking site. She describes months of torment, from having photos of her children published online to threats of a sexual nature. "They may be crusading for rape victims, but they have also been known to persuade female members to strip and then shared the images. They are sexual bullies themselves.Don't believe that stuff about them all being equal. There are leaders, and those leaders are men. Most of them are still men."

One Anonymous member who is willing to speak to me isn't a man. Ellie, 27, lives in the north-east of England with her fiance and works "your run of the mill, soul-sapping office job". She blogs under the ironic handle Evil Anon, a play on Anonymous's public image, and has been part of the Anonymous network since 2003. "I started off on 4Chan when I was at school, just interested in memes and chatting to other people." Now she devotes her time to exposing sexual crimes. During the course of our communication over instant messenger, she sends me the IP addresses of people who are searching for images of child pornography, rape and incest. "I don't feel excluded at all from any part of Anonymous," she says, when asked whether she has experienced any sexism or bullying.

Finding out how many female Anons there are is tough: few hackers want to talk to journalists and even fewer want to identify themselves. Ellie estimates that "30-40% of the Anons I know are women".

In the end, whether Anonymous is allying with rape victims for feminist reasons or because it's good PR is irrelevant. The more important question is why it is down to Anonymous to seek justice for rape victims at all?

At Rehtaeh's funeral, the Rev John Morrell asked: "How can our society provide a safe haven for young girls? Why do young men feel that young girls are but objects for their sexual fantasies and pleasure?"

At the protest in Nova Scotia, the crowd was fairly evenly divided between men and women. One woman, Jen, took to a loudspeaker to explain why she was there. "I'm upset and I'm angry. But most of all I'm tired. I'm tired of these rape cases becoming commonplace in our society. I'm tired of these victims being let down by our justice system. The justice system failed Rehtaeh Parsons."

The case of Rehtaeh Parsons: Canada’s Steubenville?

It’s been called Canada’s Steubenville.

Rehtaeh Parsons, just 17 years old, was taken off life support Sunday after she’d attempted suicide Thursday by hanging herself in the bathroom. Her story, though, began almost 18 months earlier when she was 15 years old and four boys allegedly raped her at a friend’s house in November 2011.

 

Rehtaeh Parsons died Sunday, nearly 18 months after an alleged rape by four high school boys. (Facebook)

Like the rape of the West Virginia girl by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, the victimization didn’t stop with the sexual assault.

One young man had snapped a photo of the incident with his phone, and that photo was sent to every student in their school, according to Parsons’s mother Leah Parsons. This is the part I don’t understand: Instead of siding with a teenage girl who’s been violated, some of Parsons’s classmates called her “a slut.”

“Rehtaeh was suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew,” her mother wrote on the Facebook page she set up in her daughter’s memory. “The harassment was so bad she had to move out of her own community to try to start anew in Halifax.”

Rehtaeh struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide, even checking herself into a psychiatric hospital for several weeks.

After learning of the alleged rape, the family reported it, but too much time had passed for a rape kit. Without that kind of evidence, the case turned into her word against that of the boys, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded there was insufficient evidence for prosecution after a year-long investigation.

Tuesday, Nova Scotia’s Justice Minister Ross Landry said he is now looking into ways to review the case, reversing his earlier position.

The justice system “failed” her daughter, Rehtaeh’s mother wrote on Facebook. She blamed her daughter’s death on three factors: The boys who raped her and then thought it was “fun” to share a photo “to ruin her spirit and reputation;” the “bullying and messaging and harassment that never let up;” and the failure of the justice system to prosecute the case.

Just as social media was used to harass her in life, it has now come — too late to save her — to her defense, with calls for justice.

This isn’t an isolated case. We have  Lizzy Seeberg at Notre Dame, we have the West Virginia girl raped by Steubenville football players, and we have the case of my best friend’s daughter, who was raped by three student athletes her sophomore year of high school at a party in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo.

Again, the victimization did not stop with the rape. Stories circulated about that night and she was labeled a slut. Friends dropped her. She wanted to forget it. She did not tell her parents until after a suicide attempt and a bout with anorexia.

Now, nearly five years later, she still struggles.

Her mother believes these cases “are incredibly common,” she told me. “I don’t understand this victimization of the victim and having people turn on her.” She blames a culture that nurtures student athletes, elevating them to a “god-like status” and allowing them anything they want. She also wonders if some of the girls who were so hateful to her daughter will someday look back and realize their behavior was wrong.

And she wonders if her daughter will survive.

Anonymous on Rehtaeh Parsons: We couldn’t turn away a request for justice

In a Friday interview, an organizer of #OpJustice4Rehtaeh said that hacker collective Anonymous got involved in the Rehtaeh Parsons rape case after people in Nova Scotia asked for their help, explaining: “Could you turn them away?”

As the Daily Beast reports, Anonymous has confirmed the identities of two of the four alleged suspects in the Canada rape case, but has no plans to move forward until they can verify their information:

Anonymous got involved because people in Nova Scotia “are coming to us and asking for help. Could you turn them away?” [Anonymous source] dbcoopa says. They quickly confirmed, via pictures and the multitude of reports coming in from “several sources near Halifax,” the identity of two of the suspects. One of them is widely known in Cole Harbour, dbcoopa says, “because he is easily recognizable in a photograph showing him raping the victim while she is visibly ill… why the RCMP decided these photographs aren’t evidence of rape is beyond us.”
Dbcoopa declined to say who is providing Anonymous information, but he did say the hackers have been told the rape took place on the two suspects’ property. As that’s “unconfirmed,” though, it isn’t part of what the hackers are threatening to release.
As for the other two boys, “all we have is hearsay,” dbcoopa tells The Daily Beast. “We won’t be moving forward with unverified information.”

The collective is waiting to release any names, but, as dbcoopa told the Daily Beast: “We’ve received the same list of names from dozens of people already. It’s only a matter of time before they are doxed [released].”