Canada must stop treating sexual strangulation as just rough sex

An Ontario appeal ruling exposes a legal gap that can make ignorance of strangulation’s risks an advantage for the accused.

The law must reflect strangulation’s risks
The Trowbridge decision emphasized the importance of sexual autonomy and the need to avoid criminalizing consensual activities causing minor injuries. Sexual autonomy matters. But strangulation is a dire threat to autonomy; it can disable the ability to choose, communicate and withdraw agreement. Experts agree strangulation can never be done without risk of serious injury or death.

Our research on how Canadian courts respond when women allege injuries, including strangulation, during sexual activity that men allege was consensual reveals recurring failures to recognize these medical realities. Courts sometimes minimize the danger of strangulation, expect visible injuries or treat a woman’s impaired memory as a credibility problem. The language of “rough sex” can make potentially lethal violence appear to be “just sex.”

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