$ 23 million to combat sexual violence on campus

File Photo, SIMON CLARK/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC/QMI AGENCY

Daphnée Dion-Viens

Monday, 21 aug 2017 13:01

UPDATE
Monday, 21 aug 2017 13:05

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Quebec injects $ 23 million over five years to allow for colleges and universities to implement the measures included in the first strategy to combat sexual violence on campus, unveiled Monday.

A little less than a year after the wave of sexual assaults that occurred in the student residences of Université Laval, the minister of higher Education, Hélène David, makes to the public a score of measures that colleges and universities need to put in place over the next few years to prevent sexual violence and help victims.

Each institution shall put in place a “one stop shop” to accommodate the victims, in addition to establishing a code of conduct and a policy to prevent such attacks. Colleges and universities will also need to develop measures “to accommodate the academic, so the victim may be the least possible in contact with their abuser.

A better framework for initiations

Tags will also help to better regulate the activities of initiations at the beginning of classes, to avoid overflows.

“As a woman, as a mother, as a citizen and as minister of higher Education, I do not accept that sexual violence is the cause of trauma and dropping out of school,” says Ms. David.

The unveiling of this strategy, developed following public consultations this winter, will be followed by the filing of a bill in the fall.

According to a broad provincial inquiry carried out last year, more than one person in three has already been the victim of a form of sexual violence since his arrival at the university.

More details to come.