The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) held a full week dedicated to sexual assault awareness Sept. 15-18, offering a range of programs intended to educate students on the prevalence of sexual assault.
Its programming included a film screening, a sexual assault resource fair, two workshops, an outreach at the Panda Game, and keynote speaker Heather Jarvis, founder of the SlutWalk movement.
“It’s important that this week’s launched within the first few weeks of school because this has been known to be the time when the most amount of sexual violence occurs,” Maddy Porter, CUSA’s vice-president (student issues) said.
The second event of the week was a film screening of Miss Representation, which explored how women are portrayed in media.
Ghadeer Abbadi, a student who attended the screening, said that she believes campaigns like CUSA’s can “definitely be effective.”
“It makes people more aware about the topic. It gives people insight,” said Nada Ibrahim, who was also in attendance of the event.
Heather Jarvis, the keynote speaker who appeared at Carleton on Sept. 17, is a queer feminist activist based in Toronto, according to her website. She launched the SlutWalk movement in Toronto in 2011. The movement, which aims to combat victim-blaming, survivor-shaming, and rape culture, has since spread to multiple cities, including Ottawa.
The Carleton Sexual Assault Support Centre sponsored the Heather Jarvis keynote, according to Carrolyn Johnston, Carleton’s co-ordinator of sexual assault services.
“All members of the campus community have a responsibility in ensuring the safety of the community,” Johnston said.
“Carleton has worked very hard to ensure that we provide information and services related to sexual assault. We are committed to continuing this work,” Johnston added. She stressed the importance of public education, including combating misinformation, promoting bystander intervention, and making sure people on campus are aware of services available.
Equity Services provide training related to sexual assault, safe space and other campus policies and programs.
CUSA’s Sexual Awareness Week follows a campaign called “Think! Engage! Change! Let’s end sexual violence” created last year, “with the intention to educate students on the misconceptions surrounding consent and the language we use in everyday conversations with friends,” Porter said.
“This year I decided to take the campaign further with the creation of Carleton’s Fall Sexual Assault Awareness Week,” Porter said.
CUSA’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week includes an outreach at this year’s annual Carleton and University of Ottawa Panda Game Sept 19. CUSA and Equity Services volunteers will be talking to attendees before the game about alcohol, consent, and sexually violent language such as use of the word “rape” to refer to one team dominating another.
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