REGINA – Students at the University of Regina are sending a message about what it means to “Man Up Against Violence.”
“Look at your manhood and who you are as an individual as being based on integrity and respecting others,” said Mark Kleisinger with Students for Man Up Against Violence. “If you want to prove yourself you demonstrate those qualities and you’re not being violent.”
The Man Up initiative is in conjunction with Violence Prevention Week in Saskatchewan. One of the announcements is a new anonymous reporting option for victims of sexual violence.
“A lot of people are terrified of going to the police and reporting a sexual assault,” said Pat Robinson, counsellor at the Regina Sexual Assault Centre.
This pilot program, which begins January 1, will allow adult victims to tell a counsellor what happened without giving their name: “If they felt comfortable and it felt successful to them, they might look at down the road, going forward with a formal complaint to the police.”
The program is more about intelligence collecting versus an actual investigation. For example, the information might be delivered to police and used to determine a pattern of attacks.
“To let the community know or someone else know that there’s danger,” said Robinson.
Meantime, Saskatchewan’s Victims of Domestic Violence Act is nearly 20 years old. The Saskatchewan government recently announced it plans on updating the act to better help police officers and the justice system in their investigations.
“The different types of situations of violence have expanded,” said Rod McKendrick, interpersonal violence specialist with the ministry of justice. “Before people just used to talk about assaults and domestic violence, but we’re looking at things around dating relationships, same sex relations…. ect.”
Legislative changes are expected in the spring.
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