Four out of five feel violence

If you’re a woman and you’re reading this, it has probably happened to you

Misha Warbanski, CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

MONTREAL (CUP) — From psychological abuse to sexual assault, four out of five undergraduate women face violence in dating relationships, according to recently released Statistics Canada data from 2006.

Following a rash of high-profile sexual assaults across Ontario this fall, a conference called Sexual Assault on Campus: Exposing the Truth was held in Montreal from Nov. 4-5.

“It’s shocking, it’s sick. But you have to keep in mind that the stats refer to all forms of violence, including physical, emotional, or psychological — all forms of violence,” said Liat Goldstein, program specialist and fundraiser with Jewish Women International Canada, and one of the conference’s organizers.

This fall, campus news was marked with several sexual assaults across Ontario campuses. Two students were sexually assaulted in Ottawa and another two women were sexually assault by two men who entered their residence in the night.

At Concordia a woman from the new Grey Nun’s Residence was also sexually assaulted in September.

Still under investigation by the Montreal police, the incident was not made public to the campus community because it occurred beyond the university boundaries.

“It is my understanding that it took place somewhere in the downtown core near the bars but not in the immediate vicinity of the Grey Nun’s Residence,” said Melanie Drew, who is the director of Concordia Residence as well as director of Concordia Health Services.

Adelaida Ortega, from York University’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Support Line (SSASL), says that an average of one incident is filed every week at educational institutions across the country, including harassments and assaults.

Ortega is concerned that the media buzz surrounding the York and Ottawa assaults makes them seem like isolated incidents.

The vast majority of assault and harassment is perpetrated by people known to the victim, says Goldstein; surveys have put the number around 85 per cent.

“There’s [the] myth that if they know the person it’s not rape,” says Goldstein, but the “stranger in the alley” makes up only about 15 per cent of sexual assaults.

Goldstein says that, especially for new students, the most vulnerable time is the first month or two of the semester.

“After the cases at Carleton and York, we made sure that the [residence assistants] in rez knew about it,” says Drew, adding that new students in the university’s residences are always encouraged to walk in groups and drink with a buddy.

“You might think someone’s your friend, but it doesn’t mean it’s always a safe environment to spend the night,” she says.

York’s SASSL reports that people with disabilities are up to five times more likely to be the victims of sexual assault.

SASSL co-ordinator Natalia Feldman emphasized the barriers that prevent survivors of assault and harassment from getting the care and attention they deserve.

“There are fewer services for trans people and men, and differently abled people might not have physical access,” she says.

Feldman pointed to systemic discrimination towards trans and ethnic communities as a reason fewer members of those communities might report crimes to the police.

Non-status Canadians, as well, rarely have access to health care and might fear deportation.

Sexual assault remains one of the most under-reported crimes in Canada and, according to Statistics Canada, less than 10 per cent of assaults are reported to authorities.