Central Saanich police chief to address sex assault forum
Central Saanich Police Chief Les Sylven will be a key speaker at a public forum Thursday on how sexual assault allegations are handled by police.
The forum, organized by the Vancouver Island Criminal Justice Association, is titled Unfounded?
Bill Foster, president of the criminal justice group, said the forum arose out of a Globe and Mail investigation into how police handle sexual assault allegations.
The report painted Central Saanich and Oak Bay police in an unfavourable light. According to the investigation, which used statistics provided by police forces, Central Saanich police dismissed 60 per cent of sexual assault allegations — or 15 of 25 cases — as unfounded between 2010 and 2014.
In Oak Bay, 44 per cent of sexual assault cases — seven out of 16 — were logged as unfounded.
“It’s implied in the article that it’s a label applied where police don’t believe a complainant. That becomes the issue,” Foster said.
“Chief Sylven wants to talk about that categorization. What does ‘unfounded’ really mean?”
After the report was published, Sylven said he was upset by the suggestion that Central Saanich police officers were more likely to think a victim is lying.
“To be told through misinterpretation of statistics that we’re going to call you a liar and prevent one person from coming to us … I have such a hard time with that,” Sylven told the Times Colonist.
The public forum will examine how these complaints are handled, Foster said.
In B.C., police can recommend criminal charges, but the decision to charge people is made by the Crown, he said.
“How many of Central Saanich’s charge recommendations went forward to Crown? I don’t know. That’s the kind of thing we’re trying to get at.”
Sylven will be joined by Karen Wickham of the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, lawyer Paul Pearson, and Joan Yates, vicepresident of student experience at the Camosun College.
The forum will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room 100 of the Fisher Building on the Lansdowne campus.
Pearson will be looking at the issue from the legal perspective. Yates will be talking about Camosun’s new policy of dealing with allegations of sexual assault.
Alison MacPhail, former provincial deputy minister of public safety, is the moderator.