The theme of this year's Sexual Assault Awareness Week is "No Story Left Untold." (Facebook/Prince Albert Sexual Assault Centre)

By Alison Sandstrom

Speaking up

‘Everybody’s issue’: Sexual Assault Awareness Week begins in Saskatchewan

May 11, 2020 | 5:54 PM

Monday marks the beginning of Sexual Assault Awareness Week in Saskatchewan.

While in the past the Prince Albert Sexual Assault Centre has hosted events in the community, this year, due to the pandemic, the campaign has moved onto its social media pages. Over the next five days the centre will share stories and resources. The initiative is in hopes of connecting survivors with support and mobilizing the general public to fight a crime organizers say far too often has been made the responsibility of victims to prevent.

“We really want to move away from this as being a women’s issue, to this as being everybody’s issue,” P.A. Sexual Assault Centre counselor Karla Ethier said. “We have tended to focus so much prevention and awareness on women who are primarily the people who are being sexually assaulted and not on the rest of society who are kind of turning away, or on men who are the primary perpetrators of these types of crime.”

The idea that victims can prevent sexual assault by taking extra precautions or changing how they act or dress isn’t just ineffective, Ethier explained. It contributes to feelings of shame and self-blame when someone is sexually assaulted, she said.

Ethier encouraged people to speak up when they hear sexist comments or jokes because it’s this behaviour that, when normalized, escalates into sexual assault.

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“Sexual violence is a continuum and it’s not something that just happens,” she said. “It’s a learned behaviour and it starts out with jokes and sexual comments and remarks.”

This year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week follows on the heels of a major report that documented the state of sexual violence in Saskatchewan.

According to Statistics Canada, one in three women and one in six men nationally will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Indigenous people face even higher rates of victimization, roughly three times that of their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Saskatchewan has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the country.

“That really needs to tell us that some things need to shift in Saskatchewan amongst all of us,” Ethier said. “Not just one portion of the population.”

The Prince Albert Sexual Assault Centre operates out of the P.A. Mobile Crisis office on 15^th Street W. Sexual assault counsellors are able to accompany clients to police stations, hospitals and courts in the communities of Prince Albert, Meadow Lake and La Ronge. They also offer long-term and short-term counselling.

“I’ve heard so many times people say ‘I didn’t know you existed’ or ‘I wish I would have had your support earlier in the process,’” Ethier said. “We just want everybody to know that we’re out there and we’re there to support through out the process whether people decide to report or not. We are willing to help in whatever capacity the client needs us to.”

You can reach the P.A. Sexual Assault Centre at 306-764-1039.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom