The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E21: Morrell Breaks the Ban

Hey, listener, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this episode includes discussions of assault and sexual assault, though we don't go into any specific details.

But there are.

Nice things in it too, like a group of strangers who came together to reclaim their stories. If this episode is too triggering for you, though, just skip it. There are plenty more episodes for you to dive into on the feed look After Yourselves.

I remember laying in my bed and staring out the window and I was watching a man wash the windows of a high rise across the street.

It's April twenty twenty one and morel Andrews, who's a civil servant in Ottawa, Canada, has just hit an all time low, and so she's doing that thing that movie characters do where they lay back and watch the world just move on without them.

And I remember laying in bed feeling miserable and like trapped and so desperately.

Sad Morrel is a survivor of assault, and it took her a really long time, like years, to get the language and understanding that what happened to her was wrong and that it's criminal. But after her attacker was convicted in twenty twenty one. She wanted to share her story, but there was a problem.

I found that there was a publication ban and restriction on my ability to speak, and that I could also be prosecuted for just attributing my own experience, essentially gagged against my own will.

She the victim, was not able to talk about her story, not to the press, not on Twitter. She couldn't even text her friends about it. She couldn't even email her therapist. If she spoke about it, she could, according to Canadian law, face a criminal conviction and a fine, which is how Morel finds herself here alone in her experience, staring out the window.

But even in that moment, I told myself, remember what this feels like, because one day you will be able to do something with this feeling.

Oh she does something about it, all right. I'm Annison Field and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts, this is the Girlfriend's Spotlight, where we tell stories of women women today.

Morel breaks the band.

You.

When Morel Andrews was eighteen, she was assaulted by her driving instructor. Seven years later, in twenty twenty, the case finally went to court and her attacker pleaded guilty At that point, Morrell thought the case was over, wrapped up and behind her, but it was actually just the beginning.

It turns out that the Crown attorney showed up and asked the judge to put a publication ban on my identity, essentially meaning that I, Marale Andrews, should never be allowed to speak of what happened or the criminal case for which he plaed guilty, and I should be permanently silenced, and even once I die, no one should ever be allowed to say in the same sentence, Marale Andrews was assaulted by Ziya Shaw when she was his student in driving school.

Okay, So there's this law in Canada. It's part of the Canadian Criminal Code, and it's called a publication ban. You'll also find versions of it in Australia and other places. But what it says is that a victim of a sexual offense is granted anonymity, that no one is allowed to publicly name the victim in the media or any other place. And that makes sense, right, It seems like

I had no idea.

About this law before I spoke to Morrel, and nor did she until she came across it.

In her own case.

It's not a mandatory ban.

It's just a standard procedure that crown attorneys would go through. On the first appearance in court, they would ask for the publication ban as a standard practice to protect the identity of the victim. It originally came to be Canadian Criminal Code section four eight six point four back in the eighties, and at that time, you know, society, culture

Attached to it.

Okay, So it's one of those kind of accidental laws that ends up actually holding victims back.

Exactly.

So, if you want like a technical summary of what the law intended, it was to say that anyone is prevented from publishing, broadcasting transmitting any information that could identify the victim in the case. And it was permanent forever. Even when a victim dies, that publication ban still remained in place.

I mean, I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been to have a policy that's meant to protect you, but it sounds like in this case is really being used to protect the offender.

That's what it felt like.

I felt like the only person being protected was the offender, Ziah Shah and his driving school, and that I was actively being harmed by this provision of the law that was exactly, like you say, intended to protect me.

The irony of this law was showing its face something that was meant to protect victims and encourage reporting of crimes was being twisted to silent survivors.

It was just never something that I wanted. I didn't feel ashamed, you know. I had a commentary that I felt was important about what it is like to go through the legal.

System as a victim.

Once I was told by the court that I was not allowed to speak about my experience and just being a young woman, and you know, reporting harm, the story kind of crew legs of its own, and I felt compelled to tell people about what happened, and it felt important to just have my immediate friends and family witness. But once I encountered the issue of the publication ban, that's when I knew it was bigger than me, and that there was something more that I wanted to talk about.

Morrel felt she had to try and get this band lifted, but it was mid pandemic, when it was difficult to access any legal support clinics or legal help organizations in person.

She came across dead end after dead end.

I was really alone.

It's a very lonely journey, so there were really no resources.

I went online.

I tried to find any article or guide or resource about this, and I remember laying in my bed and staring out the window, and I was watching a man wash the windows of a high rise across the street. And I remember laying in bed feeling miserable and like trapped and so desperately sad. But even in that moment, I told myself, remember what this feels like, because one day you will be able to do something with this feeling.

She asked the judge in her case, but was told the case was closed. She even started combing through the Criminal Code of Canada herself, trying to find any information on how to challenge the ban, but to no avail alone.

Again, naturally, it was pretty clear that no one wanted to help me, that my case was over, and I just was not a priority because people were busy. So the last avenue that I felt was available to me was the media. So one day I decided to email a journalist the Toronto Star, and she agreed to tell my story and I had to be anonymous.

I couldn't be named.

Or photographed for the piece. But The Toronto Star published an article about my struggle and how silly it was that I was being essentially gagged against my own will.

Once the article hit the front pages of the Toronto Star, it was impossible to ignore. The Crown attorneys who read it immediately recognized Morrel's anger, even though her name wasn't mentioned.

They arranged for a judge to have a look at.

Her ban, and as a courtesy, they let the offenders attorney know too.

He wrote back and said that he actually opposed the application and his client felt that I should not be allowed to have my publication ban removed, so that required us to go back to court and I essentially had to beg a judge to remove my publication ban. Ultimately, she agreed that I should be allowed to publicly speak about what happened to me, and my publication ban was removed in May twenty twenty one.

Wow.

I mean that was a long battle to get to that point. How did you feel when the ban was lifted for the first time.

I bought a bottle of Moway champagne and me and my roommate, my best friend, we popped the champagne. We celebrated because it felt like a long journey, but it was a celebration.

It was a victory because I felt like.

I had won and the system had acquiesced essentially to my demand and refusal to be silenced.

Now this is where the quiet win, the lifting of the publication ban and the popping of the champagne bottle starts to build into something. Louder Morell logs onto Twitter and just lets it rip. She shared everything, the shot of discovering the publication ban, the confusion over what it even meant, and ultimately the victory when the ban was lifted. Listener Morel's got the mic now and she's killing it.

Immediately people were retweeting it and liking it, and I had so many replies to the thread. People who I knew, people who were strangers, reached out in my direct messages and said, wait, I have a publication ban too, How did you remove yours?

Can I talk to you?

Like There were hundreds, hundreds of messages and it felt like again reaffirmation that this was bigger than me.

It was extreme, powerful and very very moving to read.

Every single message. The day that I had my publication ban removed, the Toronto Star wrote a follow up story. I could finally be named, my photograph could appear on the front page of the newspaper, and one of the things they.

Asked me, was what comes next?

And right away I knew that the answer was, this section of the Criminal Code needs to be changed, and I'm going to do something about it.

After the break Morell does something about it.

I've gotcha, I've got you, I've got you. Sack.

Taking on the entire Criminal Code by yourself is no small feet. And Morrell had already been through a lot with her own case. The emotional told the chaos she was completely burnt out, understandably, so she decided to take a year out. She moved to Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada and stayed in cozy log cabins with her friends in those beautiful British Columbia forests. She hiked the mountains and enjoyed her favorite comfort food of edamrmoe beans at sushi restaurants.

And then one day I woke up and I said, all right, I feel ready, And so I sat down and I wrote a long email to every single parliamentarian in Canada.

We have three hundred and thirty eight members of Parliament right now, and.

I explained to them what had happened to me, how the law needed to change, and I gave them recommendations of what they should do, and I waited. I wasn't sure if anyone would respond, and then I got an email from one Conservative member of Parliament named Karen Vecchio, and she said, Hi, would you come and testify and talk about all your experiences having a publication ban and trying to have it removed?

And I said yes.

This wasn't just Morrel's fight.

There were so many women all across Canada who'd come head to head with publication bands of their own.

And I reached out to all the women who had messaged me on Twitter and I said, listen, do you want to work together?

I think we can change the law.

And these amazing women from all across Canada said yes, from Nova Scotia to Ontario to British Columbia. Like many of them responded and just said let me know what you need, let's frickin do it. And that was how

It just it makes me emotional and I will be.

Grateful for them forever because it meant that I didn't have to do it alone and that lonely journey that I talked about when you have a publication ban, when you're navigating the legal system.

This wasn't going to be that. It was going to be a bunch of us working together.

Yeah. And I mean, we know on this show, perhaps more than any the power of when a woman puts out an experience that they've previously felt like they have to station them about and they put it out into the world, and how amazing it can be for other women to receive that exactly.

So Kelly was one of the people from the very start who put her hand up and said, hell, yeah, let me know what you need, I'm going to do it. And she actually flew out to Ottawa that first October in twenty twenty two to be with me when I testified in front of the Justice Committee, because she didn't want me to be alone, and also because you know, she wanted to be there. There's also Brandy who is

Never met them in my life, but they both came out.

That's amazing.

And it was a really nice day.

There was a breeze and I had printed out this huge binder for myself of my five minute statement, all of my facts. I was so prepared in case any question came to me. I felt like I had spent years preparing for this moment. My sister Brie and my mom also came and they sat behind me, and I just felt like with Kelly and Brandy and my mom and my sister and like all the story worries that people had gifted to me and shared, like.

I was ready.

So how did the testimony go?

Great? Like? It was amazing. I'm a public servant.

I come from a government background, so I had a familiarity of how the system worked when it came to things like committee meetings. I did cry in my statement the part where at one point I talked about telling myself to remember what it felt.

Like to have a publication man on my name that I didn't want.

And I talked about the promise that I made in my victim impact statement where I said, you know, to other people who have not been able to report, or who have not been believed, or who face too many barriers in the system to be taken seriously, I will promise that I will do what I can to fix it.

And that part oh made me cry.

And every single member of Parliament on that committee was supportive.

Morel was no longer alone.

She had her mum and her sister sitting behind her, but also Kelly and Brandy and the support of so many other women who had her back. They were her squad, coming together to fight this injustice and with their support, she finally got the Canadian Parliament to pay attention. After the break, one woman's fight against the system becomes a national movement.

Glad you have glat you, Glad you have glad you.

Morell's personal testimony in Parliament had got the Canadian government to review publication bands, but to make a case for actually changing this law, she and the other women joining her campaign had to prove that they had public support. Morrel and Kelly and Brandy and so many other women united under the banner My Voice, My Choice, and each one brought their own unique skills to the team. One handled the website, another took care of media outreach, and

I was already starting to work with the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada and his staff in particular to see what we might be able to do around the law, to just continue the momentum, to continue to put the issue in front of people, and to see the recommendations come to life on paper in a bill. And then suddenly some of the biggest publications in Canada are writing stories about you and putting you

And so that brings me on to the most important bit, I guess, which is when you heard the results.

I was in my house when I got a call from one of the staffers in the Minister of Justice's office and he said to me, can you be in Ottawa tomorrow for a press conference with the minister to announce the bill? And I almost fell off of my chair because I live in British Columbia. Were like a five hour flight away from Ottawa, and at this point

I didn't have a lot of time to prepare.

I actually, like when I hung up the phone with the staffer, I ran down the street to get my haircut because that was like, oh God, I'm going to be I'm going to be had a press conference with two ministers like my hair, Like I just need to do something, and so I ran. Yeah, I ran and got my haircut. I threw like four options of clothes in a suitcase. I didn't sleep because it was a red eye flight, so I stayed sitting up and my hair still looked really nice from when the man in the salon did it.

So that was the saving grease.

Perfect perfect.

In October twenty twenty three, the Canadian Criminal Code was finally updated with changes to publication bans, all thanks to the relentless advocacy of Morel and the women of My Voice, My Choice. It was their determination that made this monumental shift possible.

So what's the status of the publication ban now?

So the law says that the Crown attorneys have to ask a victim if they want a publication ban as soon as feasible, and they also have to inform a victim when a publication ban has been put on their identity, a victim can no longer be prosecuted now for sharing their own personal information in any forum or for any purpose. So as long as you're not identifying anybody else who has a publication ban, you can share your own information

Now that the law had changed, it was time to wrap up my voice, my choice, so the women had one last glassy eyed soon called together. They've done what they set out to do to change the Canadian criminal Code, and with that, they took down the website, deactivated their social media pages, and closed the blinds on their online HQ,

I think if there's one thing I could say, it's that if you believe that a system can be changed for the better and that you can do it, it will take time and it will be hard, but if you can re imagine something else, then it is possible.

That's perfect.

Thank you so much more so lovely talking to you, and I hope there's going to be way more opportunities to pop open bottles of champagne in your future.

It sounds like you're really going to be doing a lot. I can't imagine this is going to be your last big battle.

No, there's many more. I have a long list of things.

We often think of law as one of those things that's locked away in judicial buildings, understood only by lawyers and people in whigs, out of reach of the everyday person.

But the law is meant to be for the people.

It should serve us, protect us, reflect our values. And I know that it often doesn't. I know that even it's used against us. But that doesn't mean that it's right, and it certainly doesn't mean that we should just sit back and accept it. Morel has proven that with enough tenacity, it is possible important to demand change, not just for herself but for the many other women who, now, thanks to.

Her, have reclaimed their voice.

If you've enjoyed this conversation, you can find loads more incredible.

Women on our feed.

Do check them out, and please do spread the word and tell your friends about us.

We want as many people as possible to be part of the Girlfriend's Gang.

Next time on the Girlfriend's Spotlights, Carolyn builds a Wisterhood.

I remember taking my camera and turning it and taking a picture of him because I wanted to just freeze time, and all of a sudden a car came up next to us, and with that over correction came spiraling out of control.

This season, we're supporting the charity Womenkind worldwide. They do amazing work to help women's rights organizations and movements to strengthen and grow. If you'd like to find out more or donate to help them secure equal rights for women and girls across the globe, you can go to womankind dot org dot UK. The Girlfriend's Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit novel dot audio. The show is hosted by me Anna Sinfield.