CFL, groups team up to end gender-based violence
Men urged to speak up against abuse or harassment of women
EDMONTON Men need to stand up and call out other men’s disrespectful attitudes and behaviours toward women if society is to put an end gender-based violence.
That was the message from Friday’s launch of a joint campaign between the Canadian Football League and several organizations in Edmonton ahead of the Grey Cup on Sunday.
The Ending Violence Association Canada, Status of Women Canada and United Steelworkers groups teamed up with the CFL to push the message that men need to be more than bystanders when it comes to gender-based violence.
Rolly Lumbala, an 11-year B.C. Lions veteran and player ambassador for the campaign, said he wanted to do everything he could to speak up and urged other CFL players to “no longer turn a blind eye” to harassment or abuse of women and to “have those tough conversations.”
He said men need to “teach our men how to behave” and to call out demeaning and sexist locker-room talk and to talk about consent.
Tracy Porteous, a leading ac- tivist and co-chairwoman of the Ending Violence Association of Canada, said her group works with the league office and CFL clubs to “respond proactively to any allegations of gender-based violence.”
She added that the association, when necessary, “help CFL clubs assess those who may have a past history involving allegations of gender-based violence.”
“It’s going to take all of us to turn the dial (on gender-based violence),” she said Friday.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the league is continually trying to raise its standards and expectations of its players.
About 70 per cent of Canadians report that they know a woman who has experienced sexual or physical violence, he said.
“From my perspective, the response we have seen from our players to the idea of being more than a bystander has been very powerful,” he said.
The campaign has already been featured throughout the playoffs but will reach its largest audience to date when ads are shown during the Grey Cup final between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks on Sunday.