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The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012, which came into force on 6 July 2012, virtually eliminates the core of federal-level environmental assessment in Canada. Under the new law, federal environmental assessments will be few, fragmentary, inconsistent and late. Key decision-making will be discretionary and consequently unpredictable. Much of it will be cloaked in secrecy. The residual potential for effective, efficient and fair assessments will depend heavily on requirements under other federal legislation and on the uneven diversity of provincial, territorial and Aboriginal assessment processes. This paper reviews the key characteristics of the new law in light of 10 basic design principles for environmental assessment processes, and considers the broader international implications of the Canadian retreat from application of these principles.

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This commentary assesses the key changes to the federal environmental assessment (EA) process contained in the 2012 Budget Implementation Bill. The resulting Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012 (CEAA 2012) is compared to the federal EA process that had been in place since the implementation of the original CEAA in 1995. The article concludes that the key changes brought about by the enactment of CEAA 2012, including the shift in responsibility for EA, the discretionary application of the process, the narrowed scope, new powers of delegation, substitution and equivalency, and the more restricted role of the public all function counter to the improvements to CEAA 1995 recommended in the academic literature. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The Supreme Court of Canada held in Guerin and Sparrow that the Crown has a fiduciary obligation to protect the interests of aboriginal people. While this obligation undoubtedly applies to the federal Crown, its application to the provincial Crowns remains to be determined. This article attempts to set out the parameters of the Crown's fiduciary obligation to aboriginal people. Based on historic, legislative and jurisprudential analysis, the author submits that the fiduciary obligation is an exclusive federal Crown responsibility.

Loyalty has many meanings, within and without the law. There is a difficult question about whether loyalty is a virtue, inasmuch as one can be loyal to many causes, not all of them virtuous. For many jurists, the notion of loyalty evokes the common law’s fiduciary relationship and the norms that are particular to that … Continued

Disclaimer: This summary was generated by AI based on the content of the source document.

Disclaimer: This summary was generated by AI based on the content of the source document.

Transcripts of chat logs of naturally occurring, sexually exploitative interactions between offenders and victims that took place via Internet communication platforms were analyzed. The aim of the study was to examine the modus operandi of offenders in such interactions, with particular focus on the specific strategies they use to engage victims, including discursive tactics. We also aimed to ascertain offenders’ underlying motivation and function of engagement in online interactions with children. Five cases, comprising 29 transcripts, were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis with a discursive focus. In addition to this, police reports were reviewed for descriptive and case-specific information. Offenders were men aged between 27 and 52 years (M = 33.6, SD = 5.6), and the number of children they communicated with ranged from one to 12 (M = 4.6, SD = 4.5). Victims were aged between 11 and 15 (M = 13.00, SD = 1.2), and were both female and male. Three offenders committed online sexual offenses, and two offenders committed contact sexual offenses in addition to online sexual offenses. The analysis of transcripts revealed that interactions between offenders and victims were of a highly sexual nature, and that offenders used a range of manipulative strategies to engage victims and achieve their compliance. It appeared that offenders engaged in such interactions for the purpose of sexual arousal and gratification, as well as fantasy fulfillment.

A preparatory process is widely accepted to be a common feature in the perpetration of sexual offenses. Numerous commentators, however, have documented the difficulties in defining and understanding this process, given its transient nature and its specificity to this one form of criminal behavior. This theoretical review aims to provide a universal model of a grooming process for the achievement of illicit or illegal goals in which achievement requires the compliance or submission of another individual—one that can be applied both to the sexual offending process and beyond. First, an evaluation of three process models of grooming is conducted. Second, using a process of theory knitting, an integrated universal model of illicit grooming is developed. This model unites salient elements of the previous models while seeking to address their limitations. It is founded in control theory and self-regulation approaches to behavior, assumes a goal-directed protagonist, and comprises two distinct phases, namely, (1) a potentiality phase of rapport-building, incentivization, disinhibition, and security-management and (2) a disclosure phase in which goal-relevant information is introduced in a systematic and controlled manner in order to desensitize the target. Finally, the theoretical quality of the model is appraised, and its clinical implications are discussed.

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The current study examined the rate and psychiatric correlates of sexual abuse involving the use of digital technologies by the offender in a wide sample of juvenile victims. Sociodemographic, abuse, and psychiatric characteristics of 662 sexually abused children and adolescents were evaluated. Of these, 93 reported that digital devices were used by the offender in several ways to facilitate the sexual abuse. The offender–victim relationship was initiated through the Internet in 39 victims. Involvement of digital technologies in sexual abuse was significantly associated with penetrative and recurrent form of sexual abuse commited by multiple offenders with coexisting violence. Additionally, victims of sexual abuse with a digital component were 4.21 times more likely to develop any psychopathology, 3.77 times more likely to have depression, and 2.14 times more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of sexual abuse. These results indicated that the offender's use of digital technology may aid the initiation and facilitaion of the sexual abuse of youths and may relate to more severe outcomes. This study revealed the importance of raising the awareness of professionals and the community about the potential risks associated with digital technologies and sexual abuse. Mental health professionals should consider this additional form of victimization, especially when dealing with sexual abuse victims.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test a model predicting the contribution of abuse-related characteristics and mediating variables such as coping and attributional style in the development of psychological sequelae in adults reporting a history of child sexual abuse (CSA). Methodology: Two hundred and eighty-five males and females from three settings (a nonpatient, psychiatric outpatient, and psychiatric inpatient) completed a battery of questionnaires that included a (1) Sexual History Questionnaire, (2) Ways of Coping Questionnaire, (3) Attributional Style Questionnaire, and (4) the SCL-90-R. Results: Of the 285 participants, 33% reported unwanted or forced sexual contact before the age of 18 years. Participants who reported a history of CSA also reported higher levels of psychological distress when compared to those who did not report a history of abuse. In testing the model concerning the relationship between victim-offender characteristics, mediating variables and psychological distress in adulthood; two abuse-related characteristics (number of offenders and duration of abuse) were found to be directly associated with psychological distress in adulthood. Other abuse-related variables (i.e., relation with offender, force, resistance, age of onset, participation, and frequency of abuse) were found to be related to psychological distress in adulthood through the mediation of various coping strategies (i.e., Accepting Responsibility, Confrontive Coping) and attributions (i.e., internalization of the abuse). Conclusions: The results of the present study further our understanding regarding the relationship between abuse-related characteristics, mediating factors such as coping and attributional style and psychological distress in adults with a history of CSA. Future research should focus on the development of interventions that focus on variables amenable to psychotherapy to ameliorate the psychological sequelae of CSA. Résumé Objectif: Le but de cette étude fut de tester un modèle qui pourra prédire certains qui contribuent à des séquelles psychologiques chez des adultes ayant vécu des agressions sexuelles en enfance, ces facteurs étant: certaines caractéristiques de la maltraitance et des variables telles que la capacité de faire face aux difficultés de la vie et la façon dont l’individu attribue la responsabilité pour des événements qui lui arrivent. Méthode: Deux cent quatre-vingt cinq hommes et femmes ont complété un ensemble de questionnaires y compris (1) le Sexual History Questionnaire, (2) le Ways of Coping Questionnaire, (3) le Attributional Style Questionnaire et (4) le SCL-90-R. Il y avait trois types de participants: des non patients, des patients d’un service externe de psychiatrie et d’un service interne de psychiatrie. Résultats: Parmi les 285 participants, 33% rapportent avoir été l’objet de contacts sexuels non voulus ou forcés avant l’âge de 18 ans. Ils rapportent vivre une détresse psychologique plus élevée que les participants non victimes. En testant le modèle, lequel porte sur (1) le lien entre les caractéristiques de la victime et de l’agresseur, (2) les variables qui affectent l’expérience et (3) la détresse psychologique en âge adulte, on a noté que deux facteurs de maltraitance (le nombre d’agresseurs et la durée des agressions) s’associaient directement à la détresse en âge adulte. D’autres variables (soit la relation entre la victime et l’agresseur, le recours à la force, la résistance, l’âge de la victime au moment de la première agression, la participation de la victime et la fréquence des agressions) sont reliées à la détresse psychologique; et certaines stratégies pour faire face aux difficultés (accepter une part de la responsabilité, la confrontation) et des modes d’attribution (soit l’intériorisation de la maltraitance) agissent en tant qu’agent médiateur. Conclusions: Les résultats de cette étude ont amélioré nos connaissances sur la relation entre les caractéristiques de l’agression, les facteurs médiateurs (tels que la façon de faire face aux difficultés et la façon d’attribuer la responsabilité), et la détresse psychologique en âge adulte chez des sujets victimes d’agressions sexuelles en enfance. De nouvelles recherches devront tenter d’élaborer des interventions qui ciblent les variables aptes à profiter de la psychothérapie, afin d’alléger les séquelles psychologiques des agressions sexuelles. Resumen Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio consistió en evaluar un modelo que predice la contribución de las caracterı́sticas relacionadas con el abuso y de variables mediadoras como el coping y el estilo atribucional en el desarrollo de las secuelas psicológicas en adultos que notifican una historia de abuso sexual infantil. Metodologı́a: Un total de 285 varones y mujeres pertenecientes a tres contextos diferentes (pacientes internos psiquiátricos, pacientes externos psiquiátricos y no pacientes) completaron una baterı́a de cuestionarios que incluyó (1) el Cuestionario de Historia Sexual, (2) el Cuestionario de Formas de Coping, (3) el Cuestionario de Estilo Atribucional y (4) el SCL-90-R. Resultados: De los 285 participantes, un 33% notificaron un contacto sexual no deseado o forzado antes de los 18 años. Los participantes que notificaron una historia de abuso sexual infantil también notificaron elevados niveles de malestar psicológico cuando fueron comparados con aquellos que no notificaron una historia de abuso sexual. En relación con la evaluación del modelo presentado, se observó que dos caracterı́sticas relacionadas con el abuso (número de ofensores y duración del abuso) estaban directamente asociadas con malestar psicológico en la edad adulta. Otras variables relacionadas con el abuso (relación con el agresor, uso de la fuerza fı́sica, resistencia, edad de aparición, participación y frecuencia del abuso) estaban relacionadas con el malestar psicológico en la edad adulta a través de la mediación de varias estrategias de “coping” (p.e., aceptación de la responsabilidad, “coping” de confrontación) y atribuciones (p.e., internalización del abuso). Conclusiones: Los resultados del presente estudio ayudan a avanzar en la comprensión de la relación entre las caracterı́sticas del abuso, los factores mediadores como el “coping” y el estilo atribucional, y el malestar psicológico en adultos con historia de abuso sexual infantil. La investigación futura se debe centrar en el desarrollo de intervenciones que se focalicen en las variables susceptibles de adecuación a la psicoterapia para la mejora de las secuelas psicológicas del abuso sexual infantil.

Is sexual assault: (1) sexual abuse; (2) a sexual affair; (3) a youthful indiscretion; (4) a deviance; or (5) none of the above? It is not always easy to navigate the issue of sexual violence. In a society marked by rape culture, unconscious biases can lead us to euphemize, romanticize, eroticize, excuse, and even encourage sexual violence. This article offers a linguistic perspective on sexual violence by examining the biases, stereotypes, and myths about rape that permeate legal discourse. We discuss terms that trivialize sexual violence, such as “sexual abuse,” “stealing a kiss,” “fondling,” and “misconduct.” We also analyze victim-blaming language, sexist expressions that betray a view of rape as a “loss of control,” the unseen presence of violent men, and the shifting nature and pathologizing of perpetrators. By examining rape culture specifically from the perspective of language or discourse, we provide lawyers with new tools to advance the fight against violence towards women.

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