Campus sexual violence response still falls short

When it comes to dealing with sexual violence on campus, McMaster University and the Ontario government are both falling short.

We say this having read and digested the results of a months-long investigation by Spectator journalist Katrina Clarke. What she found and reported is troubling, and raises questions about whether the university and government take this problem seriously enough.

Let’s start with the government and this premise: There is no justification for not taking action to address systemic flaws in legislation intended to address these issues. Bill132, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act, was launched in 2016 by the previous government. While its intentions were good, the government fell victim to the tried and true axiom: haste makes waste. Critics say the legislation was rushed, is vague in what it requires of universities and colleges, and lacked significant consultation.

The legislation got some things right: It set a precedent by requiring universities and colleges to create standalone policies around sexual violence. But as Dawn Moore, associate professor at Carleton University and one of the authors of the alarming 2016 study that led to the new law, puts it: “Bill 132 is a disaster ... We got a slapdash initiative at every campus.”

Good intentions are one thing. But when they lead to poor results, those intentions need to be reviewed and repaired. Critics and advocates have been urging governments to do that, but the current government appears disinterested.

That’s hard to fathom. It’s not as if Bill 132 is a creation of the Ford government. It presents a perfect opportunity to go back and fix a problem created by the previous government. That’s something Ford and friends have taken joy in doing in other areas, so why not this one? Surely it cannot be that they are not deeply concerned about sexual violence on postsecondary campuses?

Clarke’s reporting makes it clear this is a piece of legislation that just isn’t working adequately. It needs to be overhauled, with an abundance of consultation and putting a priority on putting victims at the centre of the process. The government is busy with this pandemic, but if this job isn’t on its priority list, there is something seriously wrong at Queen’s Park.

What about Hamilton’s university? We’d like to say that whatever shortcomings McMaster has dealing with sexual violence are due to the aforementioned faulty legislation. But there is more to it than that. Victims of sexual violence, and their advocates, have for some time pointed out flaws in Mac’s policies. It’s fair to say these flaws are not unique. A 2017 study by a student group analyzed more than a dozen university sexual violence policies. Mac was not among them, but the average grade for the policies was C-.

Students Clarke spoke to highlighted what they see as failures. Mac’s policy includes “gag orders” that prevent victims from speaking about their experience to friends and family. The investigations drag on for months — 10 months in one case. And the policy does not acknowledge that “rape culture” exists on campus, a reality that has been well documented.

Students and advocates want the policy changed after consultation. The university says a mandatory review was completed in 2020. Mac may be meeting its legal requirements, but as long as the perception and reality among many students is that its sexual violence policies fall short, the university is falling short. It would be wise to support another review and significant changes that address the concerns of sexual violence victims.