CALGARY — A Manitoba judge says she was initially appalled by the comments a Calgary judge made to a sex-assault complainant but agreed to mentor him.
Justice Deborah McCawley has told a judicial hearing determining Robin Camp's fate that she was taken aback and appalled at some of the language he used.
She said she wondered if she would be wasting his time and his money.
But McCawley said Camp was brutally honest about his behaviour and his motivation to change, because of the pain he had caused to the complainant, to his colleagues and to the cause of justice.
She said she realized he has the capacity to do a good job and called him a "very compassionate, empathetic person."
The hearing before a Canadian Judicial Council committee was prompted by complaints over Camp chastising a woman in a sex-assault trial for not keeping her "knees together."
His remarks led to the Alberta Appeal Court ordering a new trial for the man Camp acquitted.