Ontario’s largest student group – which represents 350,000 college, undergraduate and graduate students – met with Premier Kathleen Wynne recently to discuss campus sexual violence and how schools can better prevent and respond to it. Specifically, the students hoped the meeting would help push colleges and universities to adopt stand-alone sexual assault policies and provide education on sexual violence.
Since then, there’s been a significant development. Ontario’s 24 colleges have subsequently announced that they will collectively endorse the creation of a new uniform policy on sexual violence on campuses. The policy will provide a clear path for victims of sexual violence and clearly outline the school’s responsibility.
“Campuses must be safe and welcoming and ensure that immediate and effective help is available to victims of sexual assault,” said Linda Franklin, the CEO of Colleges Ontario in an interview with the Toronto Star.
This policy comes in the wake of a recent Toronto Star investigation which revealed that only nine of 78 public universities across Canada and no public colleges in Ontario had adopted special policies to deal with sexual assault.
Experiences of sexual violence have a detrimental impact on an individual’s physical and psychological health, including their levels of mental health and substance use. Research suggests that individuals with a history of sexual abuse have significantly higher rates of major depression, suicide attempts and illicit drug abuse and dependence than those with no history.