Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre

for students, staff, faculty and community members. It operates from 12pm - 12am, 7 days a week, September-April, and offers free confidential peer support to any person, body and identity. All of our work is done within an anti-oppression, feminist, pro-choice, sex-positive, harm reduction, and survivor directed approach, with the recognition that all of the work we do is on unseated Algonquin territory, and we are thankful for that. We also do public education and outreach, advocacy, community and solidarity building, organize amazing sex-positive events, do workshops and spread anti-oppressive cheer all over the Carleton community!
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We believe that:

- Sexual assault victims are never responsible for their assault;

- Carleton University was not (in 2007) and is not currently a space free from sexual assault, and this is not an isolated incident;

- The majority of sexual assaults (80%) are committed by someone known to the victim, therefore,

- Institutionalized responses to sexualized violence on campus such as: safe paths, emergency stations, SMS text message alerts, security posters, pepper spray, safe-walks, self-defense training and enhancing campus safety is merely a one-dimensional and reactive approach to combatting sexual violence. This approach taken by Carleton University does not fully deconstruct the reality and complexities of sexual violence on university campuses, and does not actually help the victims after the fact;

-We believe in all choices for all survivors, therefore; alternative and all models of services should be readily available on campus because experiences of sexual violence are different, and a broader range of services are needed to fully support all intersections and realities of sexualized violence. All survivors deserve access to the proper support services that they may want/need, and feels right for them. We are students, ex-students, graduates, professors, academics, executive directors, public servants, community organizers, support workers and allies from all different spectrums who support victims and survivors of violence and are disgusted and outraged by Carleton University's position on sexual assault. This is not about any incident in particular. This is about Carleton University's stated position on sexual assault and overall student safety.

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Some statistics on violence in this country:

1.Most sexual assault survivors are women between 16 and 25.
2.40% of women in Canada have been sexually assaulted.
3.20-25% of college-aged women will be victims of sexual assault at some point during their college careers.
4.Studies done at Canadian universities suggest that the vast majority of students who are sexually assaulted know their assailants.
5.Fewer than 5% of sexually assaulted students report their crimes to the police.
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1- Violence Against Women, National Crime Victimization Survey, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995
2- Measuring Violence Against Women, Statistics Canada, 2006.
3- Dangerous Domains: Violence Against Women in Canada, Holly Johnson, Nelson Canada, 1996
4- Sexual Assault on Campus, C. Parrot, Lexington Books, 1993
For example, 90-95% of survivors who come to the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre have been sexually assaulted by someone they know. See URL: http://ualberta.ca/SAC.
5- “Young People’s Attitudes Towards Acquaintance Rape.” J White and JA Humphrey, 1991, in Acquaintance Rape: The Hidden Crime, ed. Andrea Parrot, John Wiley & Sons