Various organizations at McGill University have signed an open letter to the school’s administration outlining a proposal for a sexual assault policy following a forum on sexual assault held at McGill Feb. 26.
The groups include the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society, the Feminist Collective, and Queer McGill.
McGill dean of students André Costopoulos, one of the people to whom the letter was addressed, said many of the points made in the proposal are already in place in various other McGill policies. However, he said they have yet to all be consolidated into one policy.
“The first thing I want is a really good idea of what is present on campus already,” Costopoulos said.
An open letter published in November 2013 prompted the school to create the position of Harm Reduction Liaison, which was recently filled. The dean will be meeting with several of the signing parties.
“The first thing to do is go through their proposed policy and identify the pieces that we have already,” Costopoulos said.
He said the liaison’s primary job is “finding out what we have on campus in terms of resources, and in terms of programs.”
Margery Pazdor of the Feminist Collective at McGill, said the Montreal Gazette wrote about three McGill football students who had been arrested and under investigation for sexual assault in October 2013. The event, however, had happened a year and a half prior to the article, and she said the results were disappointing.
“There wasn’t really any response from McGill and the quotes that were in the Gazette article were troubling,” Pazdor said. “At this point it was unclear what policies or procedures, if any, McGill had for things like this when they happened . . . what should the university be doing when students are charged with serious crimes?”
Joey Shea, vice-president (university affairs) of the McGill Students’ Society, said the proposal was the result of the parties “coming together and realizing that, given the attention that the case involving the McGill football players had brought, there was opportunity to set forth a policy proposal to the university.”
“There is a sexual harassment and discrimination policy, but there is no specific sexual assault policy at McGill now,” Shea said. “The office of the dean of students has been quite supportive of bringing the parties together and having a discussion about the proposal.”
Kelly Schieder from the society’s Sexual Assault Centre said “all of the signing parties on the open letter have been working together since the beginning.”
Schieder said McGill’s current policies do not cover off-campus incidents.
“There’s also just generally a pretty strong rape culture on campus,” she said.
Carleton University opened a sexual assault support centre in 2013 after student groups lobbied the administration for more sexual assault support services.
Carleton also offers training related to sexual assault for student leaders, staff, and faculty.
Sarah McCue from the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre said a high profile sexual assault at Carleton prompted students to take action in 2007.
“Personally, I am inspired everyday by the work of those in the Coalition and the culture of activism alive at Carleton,” McCue said via email. “Speaking out about things that are so publicly shamed and systemically silenced takes great determination . . . The Coalition has helped shape a campus where a peer support model means something outside of the support centre.”
