Downplaying sexual assaults doesn’t work

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2015 (3849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Wednesday, the University of Winnipeg rolled out its new comprehensive sexual-misconduct protocol — and it’s about time.

Drafted over seven months of consultations with students as well as community partners such as Klinic Community Health Centre, the new protocol will see the introduction of a 24/7 Sexual Misconduct Response Team that will help victims of sexual assault get the initial help they need, as well as provide ongoing support. The protocol defines sexual misconduct as any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, including sexual assault as well as harassment, stalking and threats of sexual assault — and yes, that includes online harassment, stalking and threats. The university is putting a focus on the Yes Means Yes model of affirmative consent. An advisory committee will also be put in place to assess the efficacy of the protocol and collect, analyze and publicly report aggregate information about sexual misconduct, without identifying information.

The introduction of an updated, comprehensive sexual-assault protocol is a big deal, because very few Canadian universities and colleges have one. Last fall, a Toronto Star investigation revealed just nine of the more than 100 institutions it polled had sexual-assault policies. Nine.

The U of W joins a handful of other institutions — including the University of Guelph and Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. — which have developed sexual-assault protocols, no doubt in response to a cultural shift south of the border. Last spring, the Obama administration launched an initiative to end sexual assault on campus. In the summer, more and more schools were being added to the list being investigated as part of Title IX. And by the fall, California made history with its yes means yes law, which changed the way post-secondary institutions investigate sexual-assault reports.

Those game-changing moves begged the question: What are Canadian universities and colleges doing to combat sexual assault?

To be sure, it happens on our campuses, too. CBC News recently ran the findings of a six-month investigation in which 87 post-secondary institutions were asked to provide data about sexual assault. Between 2009 and 2013, the U of W had seven reports of sexual assaults. The University of Manitoba had eight.

Frustratingly, Canadian post-secondary schools aren’t required to report sexual-assault statistics, which makes putting numbers to — and drawing a complete picture of — the problem incredibly difficult. That, coupled with the fact sexual assault remains critically under-reported for many reasons, makes it almost impossible.

But perhaps that’s starting to change. In the aftermath of the Jian Ghomeshi allegations in the fall, sexual-assault survivors bravely shared their stories online using hashtags such as #BeenRapedNeverReported and #IBelieveLucy — a reference to Lucy DeCoutere, one of the women who came forward against Ghomeshi and one of the few who attached her name.

Thing is, in order for sexual-assault survivors to be able to come forward, they need to feel safe and supported. They need to feel as though they are being heard and taken seriously.

And actions have to have consequences, as a baker’s dozen of fourth-year Dalhousie dentistry students learned in January.

It’s encouraging to see schools revamp — and, in many cases, develop from the ground up — sexual-misconduct protocols, and hopefully more institutions follow the U of W’s lead.

In the summer, I spoke with Julie Lalonde, an Ottawa-based activist who, among a great many things, developed and manages draw-the-line.ca, a bystander-intervention campaign created by the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, for a big Free Press feature on campus rape culture. Thinking about the U of W, I was reminded of a point she’s often made about an administration’s role in combating sexual violence on campus. Downplaying incidents of sexual assault in order to attract and retain paying students obviously doesn’t help make an institution safer, nor does it do much to assuage anyone’s fears, she argued. Instead, universities with strong sexual-assault policies should be singing them loud and proud.

After all, wouldn’t you feel safer attending a school that had a sexual-misconduct protocol? Wouldn’t you feel safer sending your kids to such an institution?

I know I would.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca