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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Raquel Rosario Sanchez

207 replies

Signalbox · 25/11/2021 10:13

I have tried to find a previous thread for Raquel but don't seem to be able to locate it.

Raquel has released an update on her crowd justice page.

Hearing to take place from February 7th to February 14th, 2022...

"Dear everyone,
Hope you are well.
We had a very successful hearing on November 17th. It went on for longer than expected (we ended being with the judge for nearly 3 hours) which felt draining and nerve-wrecking for me but it all generated a positive outcome for us.
Our trial will take place from February 7th to February 14th, 2022. My lawyers reached out to the University countless times so we could collaborate and find dates suitable for all the witnesses, lawyers and parties but they refused to even acknowledge our emails. Having to constantly chase them represented an unnecessary expense for us and, I believe one of the purposes was that, without their dates, my case would be thrown way into the future (the other purpose would be to increase our costs). For example, into September or November 2022. I had truly resigned myself to this eventuality so I was surprised that last week the Court decided the dates for us and a lot sooner than I anticipated.
Most of the University's submission on November 17th related to anonymity and secrecy. They sought orders from the Court to further anonymise their disclosure (which the still haven't provided) and they wanted the judge to order that nobody can access legal documents without making an application to the Court. The judge refused both requests citing the principle of open justice, and reminded the University that the Supreme Court ruled that the public has a right to see justice so no requirement to seal the documents would be made for my case.
You have to wonder why is the University so absolutely paranoid about disclosure and why they are so anxious about the eventuality that the public will get to read Court documents about my case (ie. about the University of Bristol's treatment of me). What is it that they are hiding?
Having caused endless obstructions and delays by not releasing their disclosure, the University told the judge that it would take them too long to do it so they wanted the trial dates (established right at the beginning of the hearing) moved. The judge said, and this was beautiful: "I am not moving the trial dates. There have been enormous delays. Those instructing you must get their act together and get ready for the trial." And then she dropped the mic and left. Just kidding, but you can imagine how happy I felt to finally hear that!
We had to make three separate applications to the Court relating to disclosure problems that we have encountered with the University, and they had one application over something that was resolved prior to Nov 17th. While the Court did not grant us the Unless Order we were seeking, the judge did make a comprehensive order that included our concerns. I am particularly happy that the judge considered that all our applications have been reasonable and were due to the drawn out disclosure issues. Therefore, we were awarded cost for all three of our applications. Meanwhile, the Court did not awarded the the Defendant cost for theirs and told the University to go pay for their own application.
I feel very happy that during our November 17th hearing we finally managed to get the dates for our trial, which has been worrying me for such a long time, and I am also happy that the judge said this case was "an extremely important case."
That being said, February 7th, 2022 is almost here. Less than two months and a half away. That means there is a lot of work to be done (as in, A LOT) in a very short amount of time. The University has been increasing our cost unnecessarily and, while we may recover that after the trial, at the moment we really need to raise enough funds to see this case through. Please, if you can share with your friends, families and colleagues, and spread the word on social media, I would really appreciate it.
As always, I am so grateful to my lawyers for their hard work. Particularly to my barrister, Alice de Coverley, who was on fire on Nov 17th. It has been a challenging couple of months with no end in sight but now everything feels clearer and near. Having a trial so soon feels daunting but I am ready.
Thank you all for your kindness and support throughout.
Best,
Raquel
Ps. I was featured on Woman's Hour on my birthday, where I discussed our case. You can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour interview with journalist Emma Barnett (35-06 to 51-41) on the BBC website. An acquaintance volunteered a full transcript of the segment so you can also read the interview on this PDF"

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thepiratequeen · 10/02/2022 15:06

💪💪💪💪
Raquel, sending you best wishes 🤞🤞

InvisibleDragon · 10/02/2022 16:06

That is a pretty big document to forget to disclose to the defence ...

AR reminds KF he is still under oath. AC states an 80 page document concerning AA, has landed on her desk during the lunch hour. She has not had time to go through the full document. AC regrets she needs time to take instructions and digest the disclosure that has arrived.

^AR: let us hear from LJ
LJ: I've been clear that AC should have time and it's been a mistake at our end. It's the emails generated to committee members about the dates and about security. That's the nature of the disclosure. I've said we're very sorry this has happened.^

The emails generated to committee members about dates and about security ... Just a small thing then ...

bishophaha · 10/02/2022 16:16

Weren't BU late with providing tons of other documents to R's legal team at the end of last year?

Ereshkigalangcleg · 10/02/2022 16:17

I think so, yes.

yourhairiswinterfire · 10/02/2022 16:48

@bishophaha

Weren't BU late with providing tons of other documents to R's legal team at the end of last year?
Have a look at how they've behaved the whole way through....

Update 3 on Raquel's funding page, on 9th June 21.

At the moment, they are in breach of a court order that required them to submit important information to my legal team by 4pm today. I have submitted the relevant information they need from me, both at the beginning of these proceedings and before the deadline of our court order (yesterday), in part because I wanted to encourage them to stop being difficult and get on with it.

Update 4, on 10th June 21.

I have now received a document from the University of Bristol. I call it "a document" because it was supposed to be disclosure but what they sent is decidedly not. They were due to provide me a list of documents they hold which I don't have but are relevant to my case. This means email correspondence, letters and internal documents between people within the University who were involved in my case, including everything related to the Student Complaint and Disciplinary Process.

...

Yesterday, they decided to send me, as "disclosure", a long list mostly consisting of... my own emails that I wrote with my own hands to various people about this matter. And emails that were sent to me (which I already hold because they were sent to me) or emails in which I was cc'd (which I also obviously hold because I was cc'd on them). These emails have been a part of our evidence from the very beginning and, obviously, the point of this bit in the litigation is to submit documents that I don't have and would need, not documents that I myself wrote therefore I've obviously always had.

Words escape me.

Update 5 on 5th Aug 21

As I have mentioned before, the University has throughout refused to provide disclosure. We did ours ages ago, but our lawyers had to spend both June and July incurring unnecessary costs asking the Defendant to provide theirs. At the last CMC we made a specific application and on 16 April 2021, were granted a Directions Order so the University should have complied. Instead, they ignored the court order, withheld disclosure, failed to serve a signed disclosure statement and made our lawyers spend two months requesting something that any Defendant who was confident in their case would volunteer willingly.

Because of the paragraph above, we were left with no other choice than to apply for an Unless Order to force their hand. It stated that unless they serve comprehensive disclosure by a set date, the Defendant’s defence would be struck out, judgment would be entered in our favour, and the Defendant would be permitted to take no further part in the proceedings. Eventually, the University complied with a section of this but we still have to make more applications for specific disclosure because there are still massive gaps.

Update 6, on 18th Oct 21

The judge will go over a number of applications made by both sides, including a second Unless Order that our lawyers have had to file against the University of Bristol. Most of the applications have to do with disclosure problems we have encountered and how the University's failures on this litigation affect (I believe intentionally and deliberately) our timetable.

Update 7, on 20th Nov 21

Having caused endless obstructions and delays by not releasing their disclosure, the University told the judge that it would take them too long to do it so they wanted the trial dates (established right at the beginning of the hearing) moved. The judge said, and this was beautiful: "I am not moving the trial dates. There have been enormous delays. Those instructing you must get their act together and get ready for the trial."

Update 8, on 13th Jan 21.

The University has behaved appallingly all the way through. For example, during our last hearing on November 17th, the judge ordered the University to provide disclosure by December 8th. Towards the end of December, they were still making excuses to avoid doing this (the third court order they were ignoring). They finally provided disclosure on December 23rd, during a period of time when we had previously informed them that all my lawyers would be unavailable. The University dumped over 10,000 pages of disclosure on me at a time when one of my lawyers was on maternity leave, another had COVID and the third one was out of the country on holiday. They choose that date knowing I had to exchange my Witness Statement merely days later. This is the kind of unhelpful behaviour that they have displayed since we launched this case on June 2020. On November 17th, the judge told the Defendant's barrister that "the University has not covered themselves in glory" and then she repeated that statement again, for emphasis.

bishophaha · 10/02/2022 16:51

Jeeeez.
You'd think a university might understand getting your homework in on time...

LilithOfEden · 10/02/2022 16:51

Late or failure to disclose has been a repeated tactic by Bristol Uni, according to RRS's updates on Crowdfunder.

I've seen this sort of thing happen at trials. All things being equal, you would want to give the recipient party time to digest the late disclosures/amend statements/prepare for X examination etc. However, the court timetable is backed up terribly (it was bad enough pre-covid, obviously worse since). It is so hard to adjourn and then get a timely resumption of the trial as a result. The more days allocated for the trial , the worse it is finding slot.

This makes it very tempting for one party to dump important documents on the other side at the last minute and claim a "mistake". The judge and the recipient party are reluctant to adjourn, for timetabling reasons (judge doesn't want to have to read in prep for the trial twice) and for sanity reasons (recipient party has probably been waiting an age, psyched themselves up, and can't bear the thought of another delay). So the recipient and their solicitors end up having to work through the night digesting, amending, reworking tactics etc etc. The document dumping party may incur a costs penalty for the fuck up, but they probably calculate it is worth it to catch the other side on the back foot. Even if the docs are of use to the recipient, receiving them and building them in to evidence may fuck up the tactical approach the recipient and their lawyer has hitherto been using, make their arguments incoherent. At the very least, it makes the recipient their lawyer rattled, possibly exhausted from pulling an all nighter, off their game the next day....

Now, I'm not saying Bristol Uni have done anything nefarious. But to have failed to disclose a document relating to RRS's chief tormentor? In a situation where the judge has already said no more trial delays? I smell kippers.

LilithOfEden · 10/02/2022 16:54

X post with @yourhairiswinterfire . That's a breathtaking list of delay and obfuscation!

highame · 10/02/2022 16:57

Everything has been planned, right down to the last detail. Everything to try and scupper Rosario-Sanchez's route to justice. All the Unions are in cahoots and NHS uses the same tactics. Look at what happened in the Kiera Bell case, they said statistics weren't available and then published something within a few days.

Perhaps we need an inquiry into what is happening, or a judicial review. This certainly needs someone in government to look at what is going on. This is really appalling stuff and MSM need a real good look at this

DisappearingGirl · 10/02/2022 20:41

Times article today:

Raquel Rosario-Sánchez: Bristol University staff accused of trying to trick trans row student

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raquel-rosario-sanchez-bristol-university-staff-accused-of-trying-to-trick-trans-row-student-km8xfsxpc

Raquel says university staff tried to trick her into missing a visa deadline so she would be forced to leave the country.

I don't have a share token sorry

Spero · 10/02/2022 20:57

Raquel's witness statement. www.raquelrosariosanchez.com/witness-statement

BernardBlackMissesLangCleg · 10/02/2022 22:08

god, all those people with 'diversity' in their titles actively trying to push a mixed race woman out of the university

do you think they even realise what they've done?

Redshoeblueshoe · 10/02/2022 22:19

I think that they are soooo busy being cool and inclusive that they cannot actually see what is right in front of them.

I'm only halfway through Raquel's witness statement, and although I've been following this for a while on here, reading the whole thing is absolutely shocking.

Signalbox · 10/02/2022 23:44

do you think they even realise what they've done?

I was wondering that. That open letter calling for BU to cease the disciplinary process must’ve been signed by about 300 lecturers and academics. I wonder how many of them are starting to feel a tiny bit ashamed id themselves.

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BernardBlackMissesLangCleg · 11/02/2022 07:46

I fucking hope all of them can’t sleep at night, the victim blaming wankers

I appear to have got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning

ThePennyJustDropped · 11/02/2022 08:54

I read Raquel's statement. It took a fair while, both because it's so long but also just so horrible to take in how much BU has failed her.

I had a look at the live tweets this week but can't really work out if it's going well for Raquel or not. I sincerely hope so though, and I hope that if she wants to stay in the UK (totally wouldn't blame her if she didn't) she's able to.

Also I don't understand why the person AA has to be kept secret but other names are mentioned? If Raquel wins does AA's identity get revealed?

PearPickingPorky · 11/02/2022 09:26

And to think that on day one when the University's barrister was questioning RRS, I was struggling to work out what the issue was.

This is awful!

Ereshkigalangcleg · 11/02/2022 09:30

Just read Raquel's witness statement, all 75 pages. Wow, the account it makes of ideological capture is shocking. The bullying by TRAs is awful but it doesn't surprise me as much of the complete disregard by all the people who are supposed to have a duty of care for Raquel as a vulnerable student of the university.

Redshoeblueshoe · 11/02/2022 10:14

I have just finished reading it too. BU have been disgraceful. Heads should roll, but I'm sure that the only people at risk of losing their jobs are the ones who don't tow the TWAW line.

Andante57 · 12/02/2022 15:33

There’s a good article about the case in the Spectator.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-academic-taking-on-the-trans-activist-bullies-at-bristol-university

bishophaha · 14/02/2022 16:03

Is the hearing wrapping up today?

Redshoeblueshoe · 14/02/2022 16:09

Yes bishophaha, at 4.30

ColourMagic · 14/02/2022 16:10

Yes. Tweets following it here:
twitter.com/tribunaltweets

DomesticatedZombie · 14/02/2022 17:22

Adjourned and judge asking for time, hoping it won't take 3 months to reach a decision? Me, too!

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