University Scandals: Patriarchal Response to Online Sexual Violence in Canada

• In Event: Policies Regarding Crime on Campus. How Universities and Colleges Respond

Abstract

Online sexual violence is a serious problem due to the harm that it causes victims. Although there is legal recourse provided by Canada’s Criminal Code, adjudication is often prevented by patriarchal institutional actors at post-secondary institutions whose actions impede victims from seeking justice. Using radical feminist theory to investigate power differentials and the minimization of victimization to condone the actions of the perpetrators, this paper analyses the victimization and response at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie School of Dentistry to reveal that there is little benefit to reporting. This analysis is important as new provincial legislation is mandating that Ontario post-secondary institutions create a sexual assault policy. Recommendations are made to include an online sexual violence portion to this policy and implications to barriers to reporting online sexual violence are discussed.

Author

• Lindsay Ostridge, The University of Ontario Institute of Technology