FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OTTAWA, March 21, 2017 – Yesterday, the federal government’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO) released a report entitled Taking Action to End Violence Against Young Women and Girls in Canada which includes recommendations for reducing violence against women on post-secondary campuses and in Canada as a whole. Having presented to FEWO this past October, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) applauds the committee for taking strong leadership on this important issue and for highlighting the need to do more to make Canadian campuses safe.
“Gender-based violence continues to be a persistent and distressing issue across Canadian post-secondary campuses, and the committee’s report highlights key areas where action needs to be taken immediately,” says Carley Casebeer, VP External at the Students’ Association of MacEwan University (SAMU) and interim Chair for CASA. “Canadian post-secondary institutions should take the recommendations of this report seriously and commit to creating safe learning environments for all students.”
In the report, FEWO recommends the federal government take a number of actions to reduce instances of campus violence, including: calling on universities and colleges to establish sexual assault centres on campus, urging them to publicly disclose all statistics of sexual violence on their campus, examining best practices for reporting, investigating, and adjudicating cases of sexual violence on campus, and creating a mechanism through which to better educate university and college employees on these issues.
Danika McConnell, President of the SAMU, spoke to FEWO on behalf of CASA on October 19th and addressed the issue of violence against women as it stands on campus. She called on post-secondary institutions to establish stand-alone sexual assault policies and underlined the importance of improving reporting and data collection related to campus violence.
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ABOUT CASA:
Established in 1995, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, national student organization composed of 21 student associations representing 250,000 post-secondary students from coast to coast. CASA advocates for a Canadian post-secondary education system that is accessible, affordable, innovative, and of the highest quality.
CONTACT:
Lindsay Boyd, Communications and Public Relations Officer
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 613-236-3457 ext. 224
