The treatment of sexual assault complaints at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has come under scrutiny following a third-party investigation by CBC show, the fifth estate.
The investigation by the fifth estate reporters found UBC took more than a year and a half to act on complaints of sexual assault and harassment filed by six female students on the same male UBC student. Allegations dated as far back as the spring of 2013.
The documentary “School of Secrets” was aired on on the fifth estate on Nov. 23, and primarily focused on UBC.
“What we wanted to do was shine a light on what these women really felt that the school wasn’t acting quickly to ensure,” said Mark Kelley, the journalist who investigated the issue for the fifth estate. “In their mind, there was a serial predator who was on campus, living on campus, and the school hadn’t done anything in 15 months to actually discipline this person.”
The complaints were handled by the university’s Equity and Inclusion Office (EIO), according to their policies on non-academic student misconduct and harassment. UBC currently has no sexual assault policy in place.
Caitlin Cunningham and Glynnis Kirchmeier, both UBC students who filed complaints against the male student, told the fifth estate they were instructed by the EIO to keep their ordeals quiet so as not to alarm others.
Kirchmeier informed the CBC that Monica Kay, director of conflict management at the EIO, told her “we can’t have you guys tell anybody or talk about this, or even intonate that there is a problem.”
“Our staff was very saddened and disappointed to hear of how the survivors were treated within the processes by UBC,” said Ashley Bentley, manager of the school’s Sexual Assault Support Centre. “Unfortunately, I can’t say that it’s a surprise.”
Sara-Jane Finlay, vice-president of equity and inclusion at UBC, said work has begun on “an independent review of the case under discussion and a stand-alone sexual assault policy right away, and are starting to pull together the information that we’d need to proceed.”
Ariana Barer, the education outreach co-ordinator for Vancouver-based rape crisis centre Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), said UBC had declined the opportunity to work alongside WAVAW in a two-year federally funded project to address sexual assault on campus in 2012.
“Post-secondary institutions must be held accountable for their role in perpetuating violence against women when they are not equipped to handle reports of sexualized violence,” Barer said.
The same day the fifth estate released its documentary, the University of Toronto (U of T) implemented new mental health and counselling services aimed at better serving the needs of students who have experienced sexual assault.
The changes also follow a CBC News investigation conducted in February in which a student said the school failed to help her emotionally and academically after she had been sexually assaulted by a classmate.
U of T has a sexual harassment policy in place, which outlines the procedures that should be followed when a complaint is filed and states: “Those in positions of authority share responsibility for an environment free of sexual harassment.”
According to the latest date of publication printed on the document, however, the policy hasn’t been revised since it was implemented in 1997.
Similar concerns about the way sexual assault complaints have been handled by school officials has recently been voiced by CBC in an investigation conducted at York University in March, when PhD student Mandi Gray said she was sexually assaulted by a fellow student in January 2015. Gray’s alleged attacker was suspended from campus for 10 days.
York implemented a new sexual assault response policy in February.
According to the CBC News investigation, more than 700 sexual assaults were reported at Canadian universities and colleges between 2010 and 2015.
