#MeToo on campus: Sexual assault at the University of Guelph

U of G takes necessary steps to help survivors who come forward, but is a lack of accountability for perpetrators preventing survivors from seeking justice?

Story by Matteo Cimellaro & Nanci Dos Santos

Young women are at the highest risk of sexual assault in Canada. It is generally known that one in three women will be assaulted in their lifetime, and 52 per cent of the time the perpetrator is someone they know. In 2014, Statistics Canada reported that 83 per cent of sexual assaults go unreported. And, if a survivor decides to enter the justice system, they may face scrutiny, disbelief, and revictimization, which means that someone who has been sexually assaulted is more likely to be assaulted again or refers to when a victim relives past trauma.

Sexual violence continues to be a major issue on university and college campuses, and this includes the University of Guelph. U of G has sought to combat the issue of sexual assault with:

Awareness campaigns
Training for staff, faculty, and campus police
Training for students within residences as of the 2019-2020 school year

U of G also introduced and enacted a new sexual violence policy two years ago. In the policy, students can come forward to receive counselling, therapy, and academic support without having a major investigation conducted.

The University also created the position of a student affairs case director in January 2017 as part of the policy; starting next year the case director’s office will be located in the newly renovated Powell Wellness Centre.

A survivor can also launch a formal complaint or an alternative resolution. However, like for many sexual assault survivors, the path to justice is uncertain and precarious.

Sexual violence policies in action

After U of G student Jennifer Whitehall* was assaulted in September 2017 she stopped coming to campus and struggled with depression and anxiety. After two months of grappling with her trauma-produced paralysis, she felt able to seek help.

At the end of November, she came forward with her story at a 20-minute walk-in session at Counselling Services. At the time, she didn’t know what resources were available to her on campus. The counsellor stopped Whitehall once she began, acknowledging her limited experience with sexual assault survivors. The counsellor sent her to the interim student affairs case director at the time, Jessica Westlake.

Robin Begin (who is presently the student affairs case director) and Carrie Chassels (vice-provost student affairs), told The Ontarion that if a survivor comes forward to any staff, police, or faculty member, the case director will be the central focal point for the healing process.

“From the moment I met [Westlake] I was very at ease, she was like, ‘You don’t have to tell me your story, but you can. I’m not a trained therapist, but I’m willing to listen.’ I told her what we were dealing with and she said, ‘Okay, here are the resources I can hook you up with,’” Whitehall said.

Whitehall was later contacted by Westlake who comforted and gave a myriad of supports from recommending a doctor, academic support through Student Accessibility Services, and U of G covered the cost of therapy sessions at the Couple & Family Therapy Centre.

“Overall, it’s a good process because I didn’t know there were a lot of resources, because you never know until it happens. And I feel like a lot of women don’t know what’s on campus for them,” Whitehall said. “Because I just thought Counselling Services was the best that could be offered.”

For a sexual assault survivor at the University of Guelph, it can be hard to know what to do or who to turn to for help. A survivor has to first overcome the initial shock and paralysis of the assault and then navigate what is available, which Whitehall acknowledges isn’t as heavily promoted as other consent and awareness campaigns.

In the Student Voices on Sexual Assault Survey released by the Government of Ontario on March 19, 61 per cent of the the 5,833 U of G students who completed the survey said they either “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed” that there is adequate knowledge of the different sexual violence, supports, and services on campus. Only 23 per cent “agreed” that there was adequate knowledge and 16 per cent said they “neither agreed or disagreed.”

Whitehall said that she would like to see more transparency with the resources available for survivors of sexual violence.

“But maybe they don’t advertise it because it’s embarrassing,” said Whitehall. “Like, ‘Oh this happens at Guelph.’ [… But] you might as well cover the bases now instead of somebody saying why are you covering stuff up?”

Chassels told The Ontarion that if anything ever happened to a student at U of G, the most important thing is to come forward, so that the University can support them.

“And if [a survivor] feels like they haven’t been supported, we want to know, that’s my message. Straight up,” Chassels said.

Trauma-based policies and the uncertainties of the formal complaint process

The sexual violence policy ensures the University maintains a trauma-based approach to minimize or avoid any revictimization.

After the resources were put in place, Westlake listed the pros and cons of coming forward in terms of the options and the process for both the formal complaint process and the alternative resolution process.

The formal complaint process includes an investigation with a third party panel, according to Begin.

A survivor could take the same approach as Whitehall and choose the healing process. Alternately, survivors can undergo a formal complaint process in which they write out their version of the incident, the accused writes their version, and then a team of investigators composed of a staff member, faculty member, and a student volunteer — all of whom are trained by Diversity and Human Rights — will meet with all parties and gather evidence, such as text messages, photos, or anything else they deem important. The investigators will then write a report outlining their findings.

When The Ontarion spoke to Begin in March, she had not yet gone through the formal complaint process with a student for the 2018-2019 school year. Chassels told The Ontarion that six formal complaints were made in the 2017-2018 school year.

The Student Voices on Sexual Violence Survey from March 2019 shows that 28.7 per cent of the 5,833 total respondents from U of G disclosed that they had a non-consensual sexual experience.

Whitehall decided not to proceed with the formal complaint process for many reasons, including not knowing whether the process would end in tangible consequences for the other party. The process would also notify him that she came forward formally, and since Whitehall knew it would not keep him away from her off-campus, it simply was not worth the risk to pursue the formal complaint process.

“There was question marks for me: ‘Am I going to see him on campus?’ Because there was a handful of times I did see him on campus and I would just cry,” Whitehall said. “I felt there was not a whole lot of options and if there was a process it was confusing and hard to understand and go through it. […] And even at the end of it what would be the outcome? We don’t know.”

In response to what the outcome would be for someone proven to have assaulted a U of G student, Chassels said that after a risk assessment she would decide on the repercussions of a formal complaint. The possible consequences would range from non-academic probation to expulsion.

“Even if I proved to be credible, it wasn’t: ‘Yes, he would be kept from you here and here and he would be on academic probation, and he will be suspended,’” Whitehall said. “It was kind of like ‘he could be’ or ‘this could happen.’ I felt like it was subjective to the person who was reviewing it, it’s up to their discretion.”

The University currently has no mandate or policy in terms of punishment, a decision is made on a case-by-case basis.

Justice system fails survivors

According to Whitehall, during her initial meetings with Westlake and her doctor on campus she was advised not to go to the police. They weighed out the benefits and risks and noted that the justice system is often stacked against survivors despite significant gains made by the #MeToo movement.

In a Globe and Mail investigation on unfounded sexual assault, it was reported that one in five investigations are closed before a charge is laid. According to Statistics Canada, “for a criminal incident to be considered unfounded, it must be ‘determined through police investigation that the offence reported did not occur, nor was it attempted.’”

The investigation also revealed that Ontario has a six per cent higher unfounded rate than the national average.

Dana Berthiaume, a U of G student who was 17 at the time of the incident, told The Ontarion that she was sexually assaulted in her residence hall, Arts House, in 2016 just months before the sexual assault policy was mandated. Initially, Berthiaume dealt with the same traumatic paralysis as Whitehall.

Berthiaume, who suffered from depression prior to the assault, went to counselling every two weeks after the assault. Still, like Whitehall, it was months before she felt able to discuss what had happened.

Whitehall and Berthiaume’s accounts share much in common, except Berthiaume decided to go to the police first. She went to campus police and, according to her, the officer became a pillar of support. Then, after living in Arts House became unbearable for her, Berthiaume was given a new place to stay across campus in South for the remainder of that year.

During the investigation, police contacted the individual that Berthiaume identified to them. This led to her friend group splitting in two, taking sides based on whether they believed her or him.

Garry Male, manager of operations for Campus Community Police and Fire Safety, said that once Campus Police receives a complaint, they will hand it off to Guelph Police. All sexual violence investigations are handled by a special unit of Guelph Police that have undergone specific training, according to Male.

When Berthiaume was interviewed by Guelph Police for the official investigation, she told The Ontarion she was asked what she had been wearing “as if it even mattered,” she added.

“If it is evidentiary, so if there’s the clothing of a particular description or something like that, the investigator might ask that person ‘What were you wearing?,’” Male told The Ontarion. “But in the context of asking the question as ‘Did you provoke this?,’ I’ve never heard it in that context.”

Danielle McNabb, a U of G graduate student, studies the justice gap between federal policy and the realities of sexual violence.

“[Asking what you are wearing is] not evidentiary because the rape shield laws are very clear. They protect against any lines of questioning or evidence put forward that feed into sexist assumptions about women and their sexuality,” McNabb said.

McNabb says questioning along those lines is an example of a rape myth, which refers to anything that questions how a survivor ought to have behaved.

A rape myth purports to determine who is a victim and who is not; she noted that race, socio-economics, and age can all feed into assumptions about how a survivor of sexual assault ought to behave both at the time of assault and throughout the process.

“I think the police are well-intentioned,” said McNabb, “but a lot of people don’t realize the grave consequences that rape myths can have on impacting the truth-seeking roles of the criminal justice system.”

The University recognizes this and has developed their policy using a trauma-based support system to explicitly prevent any revictimization during their healing process, according to Begin and Chassels.

Sexual violence continues to be a societal issue

Sexual violence continues to pervade Guelph’s campus community and the University has brought forth a number of resources to help survivors during the healing process.

The provincial government pledged $6 million to universities across the province, which will amount to around $75,000 for U of G. Chassels told the Guelph-Mercury Tribune that they will use the money for workshops and disclosure training.

As we continue to talk about sexual violence, the question still remains: Can the University and the justice system hold those who commit acts of sexual assault accountable without leaving survivors vulnerable if they decide to seek justice?

*Pseudonym used to protect the survivor’s identity.

During the writing of this article it was reported that the Guelph Police are in the midst of investigating a sexual offence in which a male was masturbating in the University Centre at the University of Guelph. The female victim reported that the male then assaulted her. The police state that the victim did not sustain injury. For a description of the male and information on who to contact, please follow this link.

Helpful contacts

Sexual Violence Support Centre — Student Affairs Case Director