The Alberta judge who made inappropriate comments to a rape victim in 2014 is said to be sincere about improving.

A senior Manitoba judge who has acted as a mentor to Federal Court Justice Robin Camp says Camp is deeply remorseful and ready to do better.

Justice Deborah McCawley of the Court of Queen’s Bench is involved in national training programs for judges. She told a hearing on Justice Camp’s conduct of the sex assault trial, that he has educated himself, taken psychological counselling and is a good man with much to contribute as a judge.

Camp faces the possibility of dismissal for asking a woman why she did not keep her knees together.

Criminal lawyer Joseph Neuberger told Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back with Libby Znaimer, incidents such as the one involving Robin Camp, are the exception to the rule.

“Judges rarely if ever make comments as reprehensible and insane as these, so I don’t think that we should see this as some sort of moral panic out there about how the justice system deals with such isolated cases,” said Neuberger.

But Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Trevor Farrow says we’ve got a long way to go issues of gender violence and sexual abuse and in his words “we need to give our collective heads a shake.”