Clark: One step at a time to stop sexual violence

Spokeswoman for rape centre says raising awareness not enough: Premier ‘must act’

BURNABY — Premier Christy Clark says she is finally speaking out about a sexually motivated attack that happened 37 year ago in an effort to chip away at the culture of silence.

“It wasn’t the worst thing that ever happened to anybody by a long shot. And I had to ask myself why I didn’t want to talk about it, why I had never even told my spouse,” she said at an unrelated news conference Friday.

Clark revealed that at 13 years old, she was dragged into bushes while walking in Burnaby, but escaped.

The premier has been commended by many people for revealing her frightening personal experience, but one women’s advocate says Clark has been in office for years without taking action on the issue of sexual assaults.

“Raising awareness is not enough. She’s not starting the conversation, the conversation has been happening. Women have been calling rape crisis centres for many years now,” said Hilla Kerner, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, the oldest centre in Canada. “If the premier claims to have solidarity with women, she must act on that. She is the most powerful woman in B.C. She should use that to advance women’s safety, women’s equality and women’s liberty.”

Clark made her comments after her account of the attack was published in the Vancouver Sun and the Times Colonist. She described a man suddenly emerging to pull her out of sight, and the struggle that occurred before she escaped his grip and ran away.

Her government recently supported the passage of new legislation requiring post-secondary institutions to enact stand-alone sexual assault policies.

Clark raised the law as evidence when asked on Friday whether more resources would be dedicated to helping those who have been sexually assaulted.

“Women don’t talk about it because they don’t think anybody will do anything about it,” she said.

The government spends about $70 million each year on support for female victims of violence, Clark said.

“There’s going to be more than we can do, for sure. But it’s one step at a time.”

Kerner said there are many problems that must yet be solved, ranging from the closing of rape relief centres across the province to frozen welfare rates that “doom” women to stay with abusive men.

She said police rarely prosecute suspects of sexual violence and that her organization has tracked at least 24 media reports of women in B.C. being killed by their partners over the last two years.

Vancouver’s rape crisis shelter gets 1,200 phone calls every year, but supports itself without government funding, she said.

Clark said women and men are “equally important” in continuing the discussion.

Several women have told her they have relayed difficult stories to their significant others since she shared her own, but many others remain silent.

“I think that’s the culture that we all have to change and I think dads can really do that with their daughters and with their sons, in letting them know that all of these things do really matter.”

It’s a deep flaw in our society that compels victims of sexual violence to remain silent, to feel shame and guilt for something not of their doing. Premier Christy Clark has started a conversation that could be a catalyst for badly needed change; it’s important to keep that conversation going.

Some of the change could involve government funding and policies, but the most fundamental change needed is a shift in a culture that regards women as objects.

In an essay in B.C. newspapers this week, Clark explained her reasons for supporting a bill introduced in the legislature this spring by the Greens. One of those reasons was deeply personal: As a 13-year-old, she was attacked by a strange man.

She was able to escape, and although she was not physically harmed, the incident left emotional scars. Yet she told no one about it, until now.

Green MLA Andrew Weaver had introduced a bill calling for the province’s post-secondary institutions to draft clear policies on sexual assault and misconduct. In question period, the government was asked if it would pass the bill.

“As I got up to answer, I decided that our government would pass the legislation,” Clark wrote. “I knew it was the right thing to do.”

Her support for the legislation was a surprise — she had not spoken to her caucus about it — but she didn’t explain at the time how the bill triggered memories of her own experiences with unwanted sexual advances, and especially the attack when she was a young teenager.

She decided later that she needed to deliver a message: “I want women who have never said anything about sexual violence in their lives to know they are not alone.”

In a May 13 Times Colonist commentary explaining his bill, Weaver wrote: “We need to remember that only one in 10 survivors of sexualized violence will go to the police — a statistic that leaves a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of people left without support.”

Victims of sexual violence suffer intensely — physically and emotionally — from being violated, and they fear being victimized again by having their anguish made public, by having to relive their pain as they report the attack to the police. The pain can be worsened if the case goes through the judicial process, which often seems unsympathetic and judgmental. It’s no mystery why some choose not to speak out.

“Sexual violence is common,” Clark wrote. “Unfortunately, so is staying silent about it. Our silence makes it easier for those who wish to harm us.”

Sexual violence is not restricted to physical attacks. In addition to the incident mentioned, Clark wrote of “getting flashed, groped, spied on. Things that no person should experience, let alone a young girl or a teenager.”

She said almost all the women she has spoken to have stories to tell.

“Many of their stories are much worse, horrifying events that will take years of determined effort to heal,” she wrote.

Supporting survivors and punishing offenders, while necessary, treats only the symptoms. The illness is a culture that suggests sexual violence is normal and acceptable, even inevitable, a culture in which too many men think it’s OK to regard women as objects. It’s an ugly current we cannot ignore.

If that culture is to change, survivors of sexual violence must be able to speak out. By telling her story, Clark is helping to remove barriers so others can do the same.