The case involved one Stephen Joseph McCraw, who was interested in the cheerleaders of the football team Ottawa Rough Riders.

Instead, the judge called the content of the letters an "adoring fantasy" and said rape can be performed without inflicting physical or emotional damage to the victim.

As the law also referred to "serious bodily harm," Cory consulted The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and found that "serious" meant "substantial", so "serious bodily harm" means substantial damage to the victim's health.

He explained that in rape, sex and violence are intertwined, and that the rapist is exercising force which may have temporary physical effects but nevertheless potentially permanent emotional impact.

Cory said, It seems to me that to argue that a woman who has been forced to have sexual intercourse has not necessarily suffered grave and serious violence is to ignore the perspective of women.

For women rape under any circumstance must constitute a profound interference with their physical integrity.

These are choices of great importance that may have a substantial effect upon the life and health of every woman.

Parliament's intention in replacing the rape laws with the sexual assault offences was to convey the message that rape is not just a sexual act but is basically an act of violence.To back this up, Cory pointed to journal articles describing how victims often become depressed, cannot sleep, feel guilty or devalued, lose trust in people and become uninterested in sex.

For example, in R v CD; R v CDK (2005), the Court noted that while the Youth Criminal Justice Act did not define "violent offence" and "serious bodily harm," McCraw indicated that these phrases referred to substantial damage to a victim's health.