TTC must fight assault

Emily Dontsos was assaulted in a Toronto subway car when a man pressed his hand between her buttocks. Hillary Di Menna was sexually harassed on the subway by a man who followed her when she got off at the next stop to get away from him.

They are not alone. The Toronto Transit Commission says there were 577 reports to police of sexual assault on its property or vehicles between 2011 and 2015 — about one every three days.

Those are the incidents that are reported. Experts around the world, though, acknowledge that very few are. Vancouver transit police, for example, estimate only 10 per cent of sexual assaults are reported. And a study out of France found that every one of 600 women surveyed reported they had experienced sexual harassment on the Paris metro.

It’s no wonder. Vancouver transit police report there are men who ride the system all day long just to find women to assault and harass.

Which is why transit agencies in many countries are banding together to increase reporting and make sure that women feel safe, and are safe, when they ride public transit. Toronto needs to get on the train fast to stop assaults and harassment.

Here are some ideas from other cities that could improve the situation here:

Toronto should join Project Guardian, a public awareness campaign already running in Vancouver, Boston, Washington, D.C., and London to encourage reporting of sexual assaults and harassment on public transit through the use of a social media campaign, security blitzes, a confidential reporting hotline and a text-messaging service. It lets women know what to do if they are harassed or assaulted. And it gets the message out to men who harass women: They will be caught.

City councillors and Mayor John Tory should own the issue, as politicians in other cities do. They should publicize it and create an action plan to combat it.

The TTC should conduct a study to find out just how widespread the problem is and survey women to ask what can be done to make the system safer.

More women should be working in the transit system to ensure their voices and concerns are heard. In Toronto, nine out of 10 board members are men and only three of 10 executive positions are held by women. Further, only 15 per cent of TTC employees are women even though 57 per cent of passengers are female.

Transit staff should receive special training on what to do when a sexual assault or incidence of harassment is reported to them.

A web page should be created where women can report their experiences with assault and harassment on the system. That would help the TTC understand how widespread the problem is.

The TTC should retain camera footage for seven days, instead of the current 72 hours, to give women the time they need to get over emotional shock and report assaults.

The TTC plans to release a smartphone app in 2017 that would allow passengers to surreptitiously photograph a culprit and send it to authorities. At the same time it says it will launch an education and information campaign.

That’s one good step, but it’s years behind what other cities have done. The TTC, city council and Toronto police need to work together to fight sexual harassment and make sure all passengers can use public transit without fear.

Toronto should join global effort to stop sexual assaults on public transit systems