In terms of consultation with the Crown or any lawyers, I received literally none. The only reason I knew there was a publication ban on my name was that the judge mentioned it in passing during the sentencing hearing. I, as the victim, was on the call completely shocked, because no one had ever told me about a publication ban. I knew immediately that I didn't want it, but nobody seemed to know how to lift it or wanted to help me at all.
There were so many reasons why I wanted to lift the publication ban, and the biggest one was to simply be free. I knew that I wanted to publish my victim impact statement at the conclusion of my case on Instagram and Twitter. I didn't plan on ever being in this position, but when I found out that I was barred from speaking, I knew I had to do something to make sure this didn't happen again.
For the women I speak with who talk about why they want their publication bans lifted, it's anything from advocating for others who have been in the same situation to creating art that they feel is important for their healing. For me, I wanted the words to be put out into the world and to let people do with them what they would.
For some people it's really important to speak out. For others, publication bans are helpful tools, and they feel protected by that. That's extremely important to recognize, but some of us don't want them.