TORONTO – Victims of sexual assault are being encouraged to come forward and report the crime as part of a new campaign by police, politicians and post-secondary students.
The campaign, “Report Support,” was launched Wednesday by MPP Laurel Broten, the Toronto Police Service and students from Seneca College.
“This year in particular, as we have heard and observed, so many heartbreaking stories, so many families that have lost loved ones too early as a result of not being able to survive a sexual assault,” Broten said. “I think it heightens in all of our minds and all of our hearts what it really means, what the word survivor means.”
While rates of sexual assault are down across the country, Statistics Canada suggests “most sexual assaults are not brought to the attention of police.”
The statistics agency concluded the belief the incident wasn’t important enough, victims feeling it was a private matter and finding another way to deal with the incident were among the chief reasons for not reporting the crime.
Today’s announcement hopes to change that attitude.
“There’s a stigma, or shame, or sometimes there’s a shroud of secrecy for people that they don’t want to come forward,” Staff Inspector Mary Lee Metcalfe of the Toronto Police Service said. “We have to overcome that and the only way that we can overcome that is to get more trust and confidence in the various systems that are in place.”
Karlyn Percil, a survivor of sexual assault, said she blamed herself after being violated at the age of 7 by an older relative.
“I did not share it, I did not tell anyone about it because I felt I was to be blamed for it and so i carried this secret for years up until a couple years ago when I made the decision to share my story and to get help and to help others who are probably suffering in silence,” she said.
It’s important that victims know of the support available to them, Metcalfe said.
“The problem is, most people don’t ever report sexual assault crimes,” The campaign includes provocative images of women on windows, doors, computer mice, mousepads and hand dryers. The idea, Anthony Luu, one of the organizers of the campaign said, was to have people interact with these images and “shock” people by making them aware of how sexual assault happens.
Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd – two girls who committed suicide after allegedly being raped – are just two of the most recent examples of the pressures sexual assault victims can face in society.
Metcalfe said partnering with Seneca College was an attempt to educate young people about the crime and the stereotypes surrounding sexual violence.
“It is really important that we engage our youth and get at some fundamental opinions, maybe some stereotypes that are out there, to talk about these issues and to move forward on not only preventing sexual violence but also to stopping it,” Metcalfe said.
And young people are most at risk to be victimized, according to statistics provided by Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW).
Girls and young women, according WAVAW, between the ages of 15 and 24 are the most likely victims of sexual assault.
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