As it comes under fire from critics who say it isn’t taking the problem of sexual assaults on campus seriously enough, UBC is now working with Vancouver Coastal Health and other groups to unveil a new policy for how it supports the victim of an assault.
The university is now the only school in the province to provide rape kits and forensic exams on campus. Kits will be stored at UBC starting next month and trained B.C. Women’s Hospital sexual assault services staff will travel to the campus (by request) to meet with survivors to conduct forensic exams, rather than having them make their way to Vancouver General Hospital.
“Transiting to Vancouver General Hospital can be a big barrier for folks who’ve experienced sexualized violence, whereas having the resources available on campus is going to be way more accessible for students.” UBC Alma Mater Society sexual assault support centre manager Ashley Bentley said.
“It will say to women at UBC, ‘We’re on your side. We’re going to do everything we can to help you through this difficult process,” Dr. Jan Christilaw, vice-president for Provincial Women’s and Newborn Health/Provincial Health Services Authority and site-executive at B.C. Women’s Hospital. “We’re going to try to make it easier for you.”
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Advocates say this is a good step but also say it’s a small one and what’s been missing is still missing.
“It’s a good improvement but we cannot mislead ourselves that this is a crucial thing,” Hilla Kerner of the Vancouver Women’s Rape Relief Shelter said. “What is really missing from the new policy, and has been missing the whole time, is understanding sexual assault and sexual assault on campus is violence against women.”
Kerner says these kits are rarely useful in the majority of sex assault cases where the woman knows her attacker and he claims there was consent.
Christilaw agrees but says there are times when the evidence collected can be crucial.
“I think in the cases where they are useful, they’re really one of the main things that the case can hang on,” she said.
Kerner said the new policy is about more than about collecting evidence, they’re about providing support to victims.
She said the kits are a positive step, but warns “we cannot fool ourselves that it will create a significant difference,” adding that more important issues — such as the root causes behind sexual assault and the way victims are treated when they come forward — have yet to be addressed.
– With files from Nadia Stewart