WARNING: This article contains references to sexual abuse and may affect those who have experienced abuse or know someone affected by it.
Andrea Constand is already used to media scrutiny. The Canadian athlete-turned- author — and now registered massage therapist — has seen and heard her name in the news for years.
While initially that was for her achievements as both an amateur and professional basketball player, for the past five years it’s been for something else: the only woman to see her allegations of sexual assault against American comedian Bill Cosby lead to a criminal trial.
“I was really fortunate to have other women come forward in their own courage, in their own bravery,” Constand said in a recent interview with CBC News. “And I stepped up to the plate for them — my approach was to do it for them, to be in service and get justice where they were not able to get justice.”
Constand has returned to the spotlight once again, but not by focusing on Cosby — who has consistently maintained his innocence. Instead, her documentary series The Case Against Cosby (which premiered on CBC Gem on Sunday) focuses more on others who have accused him, as well as her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors.
When sitting for a deposition in Andrea Constand’s civil case, Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them.
“It’s not an easy story to tell. My story is uncomfortable for many people, painful for many people,” she said. “But I think we’ve done a great job.”
Constand was one of more than 60 women to allege that Cosby, who is now 85, assaulted them over the course of his six-decade career, and in 2018, he was convicted on charges of drugging and assaulting Constand in 2004.
But in 2021, Cosby’s conviction was overturned and he was released from prison when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors were bound by a previous district attorney’s agreement not to charge him over Constand’s allegations.
Constand’s documentary, which is partly based on her book The Moment: Standing Up to Bill Cosby, Speaking Up for Women and made alongside Canadian director Karen Wookey, is not the first documentary about the controversy. The miniseries We Need to Talk About Cosby looked back at the comedian.
Their project documents the process as a small number of women who have accused the comedian gathered for a retreat with physician and trauma specialist Gabor Maté. Constand said one of the main goals of the documentary was not to rehash their allegations but to show how they each grapple with trauma.
“It was just incredible. It was just profound,” she said of the experience. “And it will be something that I will never forget in my life, that weekend with the women.”
Cosby’s team did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News about the documentary. In an earlier comment to The Canadian Press about The Case Against Cosby, his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, stated that “it seems to start with a false premise, namely that Mr. Cosby was convicted.”
“Mr. Cosby does not stand convicted of any crime against any accuser, including Ms. Constand,” she said.
Cosby faces lawsuits from several women
Wookey said Constand’s journey was part of the reason she wanted to take on the project — though far from the only one.
“Number one was Andrea’s extraordinary story, which includes the legal story, which was an odyssey,” she said, as well as “understanding the mind of a perpetrator and how they operate.”
The third reason, Wookey said, “is understanding trauma and why when something like this happens to someone, they don’t just get over it.”
The Case Against Cosby launched amid a raft of other news about the comedian. Cosby was sued for sexual battery in New York earlier this month, following similar lawsuits filed by five other women in December.
Cosby has also announced his intentions to mount a comedy tour this spring or summer. It would be his first tour since 2015, when he appeared at numerous stops in Ontario that sparked moderate protests and heckles.
“Let him try,” Wookey said when asked how she feels about the planned tour. “I would hope that the world’s a different place … and I think that he’ll find that the world has shifted a bit if that happens — if that happens. I have my doubts.”
For her part, Constand said — as with their documentary — the focus shouldn’t be on Cosby at all.
“I feel like if anybody deserves a comeback tour, it’s all the women,” she said. “It’s the 60-plus Cosby women out there whose lives got shattered.”
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.