In the wake of a Toronto Star report on the sexual assault policies of Ontario universities and colleges, the governing body of Ontario colleges and a group of University presidents have committed to a multi-prong plan to combat sexual assault on campuses.
The report, published in December, revealed that out of Canada’s 78 universities and 24 colleges, only nine of them had policies in place that dealt with sexual assault. The remaining 93 schools treated sexual harassment with the same policies and remedies as physical harassment, resulting in a dearth of resources in place to help survivors cope with the unique psychological pain that comes with being sexually assaulted.
All Toronto postsecondary institutions fell into the latter category, prompting the presidents of York University, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto to join with 17 other publicly-funded Ontario universities in making a pledge to review the manner in which they deal with reports of sexual assault.
The presidents also agreed to develop a panel of students, legal counsel and administrators to collaborate and review recommendations on combatting sexual assault. The Star reports that the presidents will then discuss these proposals both at a national board meeting in January as well as at a student-led conference that will take place in February
The steps that universities are taking may seem laudable, but they’re almost 23 months overdue. One of the key components of the agreed-upon policy review is to use a guideline published by the Ontario Government, “Developing a Response to Sexual Violence: A Resource Guide for Ontario’s Colleges and Universities.”
Published in January 2013, the 46-page guide contains chapters about the relationship between sexual assault and the campus community, a guideline for developing campus policy, and a chapter outlining various ways to enforce and expand these policies. The guide’s release, as a part of the Ontario Government’s 2011 Sexual Violence Action Plan, was largely ignored by universities that were beginning to receive backlash in the face of widely-publicized inactions to protect or acknowledge sexual assault victims.
Over the course of 2014, however, many Canadian universities began to reexamine their policies on an individual basis after a variety of events left the campus rape culture all too visible.
The class of 2017 at St. Mary’s University in Halifax spent their frosh week last year chanting a pro-rape, pro-underage sex missive that was caught on video and widely scrutinized. This prompted an internal review, issued by the university’s president, that led to 20 recommended changes of the university’s sexual assault policy.
Similarly, on January 5, Dalhousie University suspended a group of dental school students from their clinical understudy duties after it was revealed that they were members of a misogynistic and sexist Facebook group that contained, among other things, a poll on which female student each of them would like to “hate-fuck” the most.
In a press release detailing the suspension, Dalhousie president Dr. Richard Florizone acknowledged that this sort of behavior “is not isolated to Dalhousie University… [but] a complex societal issue about which our community cares deeply and in which we must fully engage.” This is perhaps the strongest display of enforcement in the string of ad hoc incidents, and points towards adoption of a zero-tolerance approach.
However, dealing with university sexual assaults on a case by case basis is a band-aid solution when surgery is needed. The steps taken by Ontario universities and colleges as a collective to acknowledge their systemic issues, and perform self-surgery to remedy them, will have a much stronger effect on the safety of all students than a simple reactionary punishment policy.
In many of these individual cases, the lack of policy specific to sexual harassment led to failures to protect victims of sexual assault. With the lack of a sexual assault policy comes an uninformed and unprotected student body when it comes to issues of sexual assault. Victims may be unsure of their own rights or be provided with sporadic, unspecific support from student counseling services.
The psychological trauma that often accompanies the physical in an instance of sexual assault cannot simply be treated by going to a doctor and getting patched up, yet without distinct sexual assault policy, universities and colleges are failing to provide the proper care that aids survivors in their recovery.
By acknowledging the traces of rape culture that run through their institutions, Ontario’s postsecondary institutes are taking the first step towards changing their culture, and by extension themselves, for the better.
