Student starts campaign for sexual assault survivors

HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia student trying to raise awareness about sexual assault-related issues is hoping university students across Canada will don teal ribbons on Thursday.

Shelby Miller, a psychology student at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, says she was inspired to take action after learning how St. Francis Xavier University mishandled a reported case of sexual assault.

“It’s an issue we hear about on university campuses every year,” the 21-year-old student from Stewiacke, N.S., said in an interview Wednesday. “People should know about what is happening.”

The case at St. F.X. involves a woman who says she was sexually assaulted last November and reported the alleged attack to the Antigonish, N.S., university in January.

Though the school swiftly launched an investigation and suspended the accused for the next academic year, the decision was put on hold after he filed an appeal.

However, the administration failed to notify the complainant.

The young woman from the Toronto area, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, abandoned her studies after she learned the accused had returned to study at the campus.

Court documents show the man was charged with sexual assault last spring, and a preliminary inquiry is set for Nov. 29. He withdrew from the school after The Canadian Press reported on the case.

Miller said she set up a Facebook page last week to promote the teal ribbon event, and since then almost 2,000 students from schools in Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I., Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have pledged to support the campaign.

The Facebook site is called “I’m With Her.”