Provinces, schools need to do more than just talk about sexual violence on campuses: expert

Provinces and territories need to do more to stop sexual violence on college and university campuses, including enacting legislation that would force the hands of school administrators, one expert says.

Hilla Kerner, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, says often universities and colleges do not see how they factor into the problem when their female students are attacked.

“Most of the time, when the institutions are doing something, it’s because there’s pressure to do so,” Kerner told Yahoo Canada News.

By standing back and not having policies in place, they are “enabling men to sexually assault women” and “the men know they will get away.”

The issue of sexual violence on Canadian campuses is once again in the news this week following a report on the CBC TV program, the fifth estate. In the report, six women said they complained of sexual harassment by a graduate student to administration at the University of British Columbia (UBC), but it took more than a year and a half for anything to be done. The grad student has since been expelled, but told the news program he is appealing the university’s decision.

Glynnis Kirchmeier, one of the alleged victims, told a news conference on Sunday she will be filing a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal against the university for the way it handled the issue.

Another former student, Lucia Lorenzi, recounted on Twitter a violent encounter she had with another student in January 2011.

“I want to be clear that institutional indifference is not a unique thing,” she tweeted. She said when she mentioned the assault four years later during an interview with the media, university administration did not speak to her until some members saw her at a conference a few months after the interview. She said at the conference, those administrators seemed interested in learning more, but when she emailed them, they never responded.

“UBC has had a chance to talk to survivors, listen to why they didn’t report, see how they can help,” she wrote. “I don’t hold the university responsible for me not reporting my assault. But I am angry at how administrators only pretended to care.”

In a statement this week, UBC’s interim president and vice-chancellor Martha Piper thanked the women for speaking out and apologized to those “who feel they have been let down by our university.”

She also wrote in the statement that the school “will begin a discussion with our students, faculty and staff on a separate sexual assault policy that will enable the university to take action in a more timely and effective manner. We will be reviewing the steps that were taken in these cases to determine how they might have been handled more effectively and expeditiously.”

Sexual violence on university and college campuses has always been an issue, but in recent years, more people have started speaking out about it. High profile cases that have made national headlines include when 13 male dentistry students at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University had their clinic privileges suspended in January after they allegedly made sexual and violent comments about female students on Facebook.

Chants about rape by students at UBC and Saint Mary’s University in Halifax during frosh week in 2013 also made the news. In March 2014, the University of Ottawa’s men’s hockey team was suspended after sexual assault allegations. The team won’t hit the ice again until fall 2016.

On Tuesday, British Columbia Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson said in an emailed statement to Yahoo Canada News that his office “is working with our 25 public post-secondary institutions to ensure that they have up to date practices and policies around sexual assault and harassment to support students and staff.”

“Student safety is a top priority,” Wilkinson said.

Legislating schools

But at least two provincial governments are not leaving it to the schools alone to combat the issue. Both Ontario and Manitoba have laid the groundwork for new laws that would force post-secondary institutions to do more to keep students safe.

In October, the Ontario government introduced the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act, which “would make workplaces, campuses and communities safer and more responsive to the needs of survivors and to complaints about sexual violence and harassment.” The law would require every college and university and private career college to have a stand-alone sexual violence policy. Students must be involved in the process and the policy must be reviewed at least once every three years.

“This legislation, if passed, would give survivors the supports they need while keeping our campuses, workplaces and communities safe,” Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues Tracy MacCharles said at the time.

Last week, Manitoba Education Minister James Allum also put forward new legislation that would require all post-secondary institutions to have policies in place to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and violence.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our young people,” Allum said in a release. “Everyone has the right to safety on campus and the proposed legislation would go a long way to making that a reality.”

Officials in Newfoundland and Labrador have started talking with schools about what can be done. In October, the province launched phase two of its Violence Prevention Initiative Action Plan. This will include government officials meeting with schools to talk about their violence prevention measures on campuses and discussing possibly adding violence prevention training — including cultural sensitivity and gender inclusive analysis — into the curriculum.

In a statement, Nova Scotia government media relations advisor Chrissy Matheson said there is currently no legislation in the province, but officials are “in the process of developing a new memorandum of understanding with our universities. It will include improved supports for student success, which looks at things like sexual assault and sexual violence policies at universities.”

As well, on Monday, the province launched the Prevention Innovation Grants program to “help spur new and creative solutions to address this issue” and early next year, it will be setting up a sexual assault reporting telephone line that all university campuses will be able to utilize.

In November 2014, the Saskatchewan government ordered all its post-secondary schools to develop sexual harassment policies and “most of the institutions have complied,” a spokeswoman said.

“We expect all Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions to have developed and implemented a sexual harassment policy in the near future.”

Alberta also does not have legislation, but a spokeswoman said the government “expect” all schools “to have the proper procedures and policies in place to address any sexual harassment or assault allegations.”

“Currently, it is the responsibility of each institution to clearly articulate that these types of behaviours are not tolerated, that victims will be supported and that aggressors will be held responsible,” Leah Holoiday, press secretary for the Ministry of Advanced Education and Ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour, wrote in an email.

As well, the Alberta government supported a sexual assault public awareness campaign this fall called I Believe You, she said.

Yahoo Canada News reached out to media contacts with all the provinces and territories, but some were unable to respond before deadline.

Silence is Violence

While provinces and post-secondary institutions create policies and legislation, groups such as Silence is Violence — which was started earlier this year and operates chapters at UBC and Toronto’s York University — are starting campaigns to get more people talking about and reporting sexual violence on campus.

On Monday, the UBC chapter began a postering and Twitter campaign using the hashtag #thatsnothelping that calls on school administration to take more action. The UBC and York groups have also set up a fundraising page to raise money to help victims of sexual assault with legal fees.

Kerner said legislating schools to create policies is a good move, “but the real test will be how effective, how proactive universities are” in ensuring those policies are followed.

“We live in a society where women are being treated as sexual objects,” she said. “One session, one workshop, one flyer is not going to fix it … The universities need to understand that.”

The Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter has a telephone hotline available to any woman in Canada: (604) 872-8212.