Sexual Violence Prevention at Canadian Universities: Critical Perspectives on Policy and Practice

• In Event: Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence

Abstract

Sexual violence on Canadian university campuses has garnered considerable media coverage. Under public pressure, several provinces in Canada have introduced legislation requiring universities to implement sexual violence policies, complainant procedures and response protocols, educational resources, and to publicly report sexual violence incidence rates. This paper examines the disjuncture between these system-level reforms in legislation, policies, and procedures, and the lived experiences of students and faculty facing the realities of sexual violence on their campuses. We report on a research study employing participatory theatre with instructor- and student-activists from across Canada who are advocating for improved prevention and response to sexual violence on their campuses. As this paper will reveal, the novel methodology of participatory theatre, which involves the use of embodied theatrical games with participants, opened a new window into the critical criminological study of institutional policies and prevention of sexual violence. While many Canadian universities have introduced policies and programs to address sexual violence, the study’s findings illustrate their many inadequacies. Through facilitated participatory theatre sessions, participants reported a lack of properly trained staff, cumbersome processes that rob complainants’ control over the flow of information, the dominance of neoliberal institutional processes, overlaps and gaps resulting from poorly coordinated policies, the exclusion of gender studies scholars and others with expertise in anti-violence work during the implementation of the policies, and the strategic use of policy development to occupy and pacify activists and slow their progress on large-scale campus reforms and systemic changes. The study’s results indicate that the emerging system-level reforms are top-down solutions that commonly neglect crucial aspects of the everyday realities of both students and instructors.

Authors

• Andrea Quinlan, University of Waterloo

• Elizabeth Quinlan, University of Saskatchewan

• Curtis Fogel, Brock University