Allum to legislate U of W’s strategy against sexual violence for all campuses

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This article was published 18/11/2015 (3605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By Nick Martin

 

 

T

he University of Winnipeg’s campaign against sexual violence on campus will soon become mandatory at every university and college in Manitoba.

Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum announced Wednesday in Winnipeg he will legislate the university’s comprehensive strategy as standard procedure on campuses across the province.

“Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of students when they’re on campus,” Allum said.

A campus can not just be safe, he said: “They have to perceive it’s safe.”

Allum later told reporters he was not criticizing other schools for falling short — they are all working to stop sexual violence and harassment, said the minister — but none has developed as far-reaching a strategy as the University of Winnipeg.

The campaign, which took effect this summer, resulted from extensive consultation with students and encourages not only both reporting incidents and taking action, but also public reporting of what is happening and what schools are doing about it.

The proposed bill would require universities and colleges to:

• have policies and procedures in place to prevent and respond to sexual violence and sexual harassment on campus;
• develop these policies in consultation with students;
• inform students of the services and procedures in place under the policies;
• report publicly on the activities related to their policies.

The minister noted the proposed legislation would also allow for the creation of regulations about the content of the policies, the way in which the policies would be updated, as well as the form and manner of annual reporting.

“Sex requires consent,” said U of W president Annette Trimbee.

Having such legislation “facilitates a culture of consent,” said Alana Robert, women’s representative on the University of Manitoba Students’ Union.

She said the U of M does much of what the U of W already does, but welcomed having an even more-comprehensive model.

“At the U of M, we have the student-run initiative No Means No,” she pointed out.

Kelby Loeppky, director of the status of women for the U of W Students’ Association, said the proposed legislation marks a “shift from a rape culture to a consent culture. This marks the ending of silence on sexual violence on Manitoba campuses.”

Klinic Community Health sexual-assault counsellor Lyndsay Hersikorn said the proposed legislation “is a public acknowledgement of this pervasive issue. We would love to be working ourselves out of a job.”

The advocates could not say how many students have come forward so far at the U of W to file reports under the new process, but emphasized sexual assault is happening on campuses across Canada.

“We’re responding to student voices, community voices,” said Allum.

“All campuses are working on these initiatives.”

He said the proposed legislation would also cover misogynistic activity witnessed on other Canadian campuses such as Facebook and other social-media harassment, and student events that tried to ridicule consent and to get students to believe “no means yes.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca