This year’s Carleton’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week was hosted from Feb. 6-10 by service centres across campus including Equity Services, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), and the Womyn’s Centre.
The week aims to promote consent culture through the lens of intersectionality with various events and workshops, said Sydney Jacklin, a GSA sexual assault outreach co-ordinator
“[We are] talking about the intersections involved in sexual violence including race and gender and sexuality, but also looking outside that and talking about self-care and bystander awareness, and finding different avenues to talk about sexual violence that really haven’t come up,” Jacklin.
According to Sydney Schneider, programming co-ordinator at the Womyn’s Centre, another area of focus for the week was prevention.
“We really want to focus on the fact that sexual violence isn’t always that stranger in the bushes, more often than not it’s someone you know,” Schneider said.
Kari Sampsel, medical director of the Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program at the Ottawa Hospital, gave a lecture on the date-rape drug GHB and its effects on the brain on Feb. 6.
“GHB is the perfect rape drug,” Sampsel said, “You’re not making any new memories from the time that GHB starts hitting your system.”
Five Campus Safety officers were also present at the lecture, asking how the drug can be detected and what symptoms victims might experience.
A discussion on the link between race and gender identity was also scheduled for the week and highlighted the increased violence transgender women of colour face.
“Because of systems like racism, colonialism, and imperialism there is a higher [incidence] of sexual violence against people of colour,” Jacklin said.
“I think especially in more marginalized communities it definitely is more present, but of course sexual violence happens to everybody, we never want to limit the narrative of who it affects,” Jacklin said.
A consent culture workshop for men was held on Feb. 7, which focused on the impact of masculinity on consent.
“We do want to say that consent and identities are intertwined, especially with men, and I think this workshop is trying to highlight the ways in which we can express our identities and show respect and kindness, and consent is part of that,” Jacklin said.
Schneider said the safe space activities, such as the healing art space, provide an environment for those wanting to express their feelings and connect with others.
While the week focuses on sexual violence on university campuses according to Schneider, Dr. Sampsel added the issue needs to be further broadened.
“This isn’t a Carleton issue, this is a people issue, and if you have people on campus this is happening,” Dr. Sampsel said. “To recognize it and to do something to try to keep your student population safe is amazing.”
