Rape culture is defined by the Government of Ontario as “[a] culture in which dominant ideas, social practices, media images and societal institutions implicitly or explicitly condone sexual assault by normalizing or trivializing … sexual violence and by blaming survivors for their own abuse.”. Rape culture creates a climate in which we accept that our policies, practices, law enforcement, and courts do not respond well to the problem of sexual violence. Furthermore, it facilitates the high rates of sexual violence across university and college campuses.
A report released by McGill in 2018 found that 40% of students had experienced sexual harassment at McGill. This harassment most often takes place across campus, at parties or social events, in the classroom, and in virtual environments. In a 2017 survey of McGill students, 22.4% reported experiencing sexual assault during their time at McGill. The survey found that many of the incidents of sexual harassment and assault involved alcohol consumption.
In the fall of 2017, the SSMU worked with students from Carleton University to publish the OurTurn National Action Plan. The OurTurn National Action Plan is a bilingual, adaptable, action plan to end campus sexual violence through evidence-based programs and effective action. The publication was signed by 20 student unions from 8 provinces representing 500,000 students. The Plan provides them with the tools they need to prevent sexual violence. This includes creating awareness and education campaigns, supporting survivors on their campuses, and lobbying for reforms at the campus, provincial, and federal levels. If you are interested in being a part of anti-sexual violence advocacy work at McGill please contact the SSMU VP (External Affairs) and VP (University Affairs) at external@ssmu.ca and ua@ssmu.ca.
In April and December of 2017 respectively, the Adhoc Panel to Conduct a Campus Study of Sexual Violence and the Committee for the Implementation of the Policy Against Sexual Violence. For the full mandate, composition, and timeline of each committee, please follow the links above! These two committees reported back to the Provost, Dr. Christopher Manfredi, at the end of the Winter 2018 semester.
Future work was largely guided by the results and recommendations from these reports such that, in the Winter 2019 semester, McGill University’s Policy Against Sexual Violence was updated. Among other changes, this version incorporates the new Special Investigator reporting structure and, thanks to extensive student advocacy, a ban on intimate relationships between teaching staff and students where the teacher holds academic authority over the student. In addition, the Procedures for the Investigation of Reports of Sexual Violence was passed in conjunction with the Policy amendments. Moving forward, the University will continue to convene meetings of a Working Group and the Implementation Committee of the Policy Against Sexual Violence.
On October 12, 2017, the SSMU Legislative Council unanimously passed a motion to acknowledge rape culture at McGill and the SSMU. The text of the motion can be found through this link. This motion was the first step towards the SSMU developing a holistic and survivor-centric response to sexual violence on campus and initiated the creation of the McGill OurTurn Taskforce.
In response to the harm perpetrated by members of the SSMU Executive in 2017, the SSMU sought to produce its own gendered and sexual violence policy. In January of 2018, funding from SACOMSS was used to hire the Sexual Violence Policy Project Coordinator and two Sexual Violence Policy Project Advisors. They worked to develop a holistic, survivor-centric policy over the course of the semester, conducting general and closed consultations with the SSMU membership and stakeholders. The final draft of the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy was presented to the SSMU Legislative Council in September 2018, and the Project Team’s final report can be accessed here.
The GSVP was updated in Summer 2020 and the revised version was passed at SSMU Legislative Council December 2020.