MeToo movement ‘a necessary social awakening,’ Henein says at Toronto debate
TORONTO — Criminal lawyer Marie Henein has thrown her support behind the #MeToo movement, calling it a “necessary social awakening,” but warning that it “needs to stop being salacious.”
Henein, who has made headlines for representing former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi and ex-Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant, admitted Wednesday evening that she had been intentionally quiet about the movement stemming from sexual assault allegations that have ensnared several high-profile figures.
“I have sort of been avoiding speaking about this topic, not because I don’t have views, (because) I do and not because I don’t think this is something worth thinking about, but because I worry sometimes that we won’t be carefully heard,” she said. “I worry when there is a sea of voices, you get drowned out.”
Her comments came at a discussion about the movement and how women are treated by and in the law that was hosted by lawyer Kim Stanton at the University of Toronto’s Hart House.