Sexual Assault Awareness Month
By Jenny Hagan
The month of April brings in the start of our spring. New beginnings and new life, which is fitting that Sexual Assault Awareness Month also happens in April. This annual campaign started in 2001 is aimed at raising public awareness about sexual assault, and education on the prevention in communities as well as addressing the misconceptions behind sexual assault.
While the movement wasn’t recognized until 2001 its roots started in 1976 with the “Take Back the Night”. Since then, a few large campaigns have been added to raise awareness including “The Clothesline Project”, “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” and “Denim Day”.
It’s an important topic of conversation to have and continues to be important to educate our communities, especially here in Saskatchewan. A 2020 study with the University of Saskatchewan with Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan found that while the national average of Sexual Assault cases nationally is 60 per 100,000 the rate near doubled here in Saskatchewan to 104 per 100,000. 90% of those victims’ women. Its also important to note that those numbers increased markedly during the pandemic and has been coined the “Shadow Pandemic”. Sexual and Gender based Violence according to the Canadian Red Cross, has increased in Canada by 20-30% during the pandemic. Crisis and support centers nation-wide are seeing these increases and the West central area is no exception. Speaking with Sarah Pashovitz from the West Central Crisis & Family Support Center she states, “Statistics show an increase in these events during the pandemic, and we’ve seen that here as well” Sexual assault, though statistically more common for women is not exclusive to the gender and “we’ve seen an increase in male population reporting sexual violence”
It highlights the importance of these services in our community. West Central Crisis center offers a 24/7 Traumatic Events Response Service that handle a wide variety of traumatic events including Sexual Assault. Sarah states, “Someone will always answer the emergency line” and offers victims of sexual assault access to support services immediately. The response team will help victims make the choice to report or not report, and help them through the whole process, offering immediate and continued support.
Reporting and talking about sexual violence is a difficult process for many victims, victims often feel shame for a situation that is not their fault and out of their control. Which means that many sexual assault cases go unreported. It’s estimated that Sexual Assault statistics represent only 20% of actual cases. A stark reminder on how far we have to go yet. Organizations across the nation are working hard to change the narrative, policies, and education behind sexual assault to a victim centered approach to make the process as minimally traumatic as possible.
It’s an approach the RCMP takes as well. Speaking with Staff Sergeant Kevin Peterson of the Kindersley RCMP. He states sexual assault is a “very personal traumatic experience” which makes it difficult to talk about and can make the process of reporting intimidating. Policies have been put in place to address the challenges and Officers are trained to take a trauma informed approach aimed at reducing the stress and trauma victims experience in reporting these crimes. The support offered to victims doesn’t end with the reporting process and the RCMP has a comprehensive Victim Services Program designed to lessen the impact of crime and trauma on victims and their families and to assist in their recovery. It’s highly important these crimes are reported and investigated properly, every report is taken very seriously, and there’s a lot of oversight to ensure these crimes are handled correctly, and victims are supported.
We have made progress in the awareness and education of sexual assault, but as the conversation continues, we can see we still have a long way to go. Staff Sergeant Peterson also notes that there’s always room for improvement in addressing these challenges and its why conversations like these are so important within the community, in raising awareness and implementing policy that will hopefully reduce the risk of future generations experiencing these traumatic events, and improving our approach to dealing with these crimes.
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