Dear Terry Newman: No, MeToo Has Not Gone Too Far — It Hasn't Gone Far Enough

Exploiting a gender does not sell papers. It emboldens the exploited.

When a National Post columnist uses a criminal acquittal to declare MeToo's "excesses" the real issue in a case of alleged gang sexual assault, we must ask: excess for whom?

Terry Newman's recent article about the Hockey Canada verdict does not read as a sober reflection on a complex legal case. It reads as a cultural sigh of relief — a moment for those who have long resented MeToo’s reach to say, “See? We told you it was overblown.”

Let’s be clear: the MeToo movement is not a court of law. It is not a prosecutorial tool. It is a cultural reckoning — and it is far from over. MeToo has always been about more than guilty verdicts. It is about breaking silence, challenging systems of complicity, and naming the ways power, privilege, and patriarchy distort our understanding of consent.

Consent Is Not the Only Question — Power Is

The judge in this case concluded there was "actual consent not vitiated by fear." But as many survivors know, coercion, intimidation, shame, and peer pressure rarely leave behind physical evidence. The absence of criminal liability does not prove the presence of healthy sexual dynamics — especially in a culture where power disparities are both structural and normalized.

The Restitution Project has said it before: the criminal justice system was not built to validate the complexity of survivors’ truths. “Beyond a reasonable doubt” is a high bar — and it should be. But when survivors are discredited for being ashamed, confused, inconsistent, or simply human, we have to ask: who gets the benefit of the doubt? And why?

From Dismissed Juries to Cultural Dismissal

Newman suggests this trial was a “reckoning” for MeToo. That’s rich, considering the obstacles survivors face just to be believed. E.M. was not only scrutinized by a court of law, but by the court of public opinion. Her text messages, her memory, her choices, her body weight, and her sexuality were all weaponized to undermine her credibility — not unlike the countless women before her who have been told, in effect, “You asked for it.”

Seven years passed before this case saw a courtroom. Two juries were dismissed. A settlement was paid in secret. And still, we are told that the real problem is that a woman might have misread her experience, or worse, regretted it. What a convenient narrative — especially for institutions that would rather avoid introspection about the cultures they foster.

MeToo Isn't About Perfect Victims — It's About Real People

One of the most insidious tropes reinforced in Newman’s piece is the idea that women’s trauma only counts if they behave consistently, remember everything perfectly, and never contradict themselves. But trauma doesn’t work that way. Shame doesn’t work that way. Fear doesn’t work that way. And consent, especially under pressure or in unfamiliar settings, is not always as clean as a binary “yes” or “no.”

When MeToo critics mock the complexity of these cases, they reveal just how little they understand the lived experience of survivors. E.M. said she didn’t want charges — she wanted accountability. She wanted those involved to have a conversation so that this wouldn’t happen to someone else. That’s not vengeance. That’s a call for cultural change.

MeToo Isn't Dead. It’s Growing Up.

Movements evolve. MeToo has moved from hashtags to legislative reform, from social media posts to workplace policies, from whispered warnings to survivor-led advocacy. It has created new space for restorative justice, trauma-informed processes, and institutional accountability.

What MeToo threatens is not due process — it threatens impunity. It questions the unspoken rules that allow violence to hide in plain sight, and it insists that “not guilty” is not the same as “nothing happened.”

At The Restitution Project, we do not exist to relitigate cases. We exist to support those who’ve been silenced. We advocate for legal reform, yes — but also for cultural reckoning. Because until the systems that protect abusers are dismantled, justice will remain out of reach for far too many.

MeToo isn’t excessive. What’s excessive is a world where survivors are expected to carry their pain in silence — and where their courage is twisted into evidence against them.

That world is not good enough. And we will not stop pushing for better. For. E.M. For every victim.