Saturday, 20 April 2024

sexual assault

Open letter to Stephen McNeil: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners urgently needed in Colchester County

In September Premier Stephen McNeil said the SANE program should be made available in Truro, NS after a young sexual assault victim sought help from the Colchester East Hants Health Centre but was given pamphlets, and turned away.  It is now November, and sadly, we are still waiting for this program. I am inquiring on the status of implementing this much needed program, writes Shelley Sprague in an open letter to the premier.

Weekend video: The girls of Meru (trailer)

Weekend video: Over five years, acclaimed filmmaker Andrea Dorfman follows the heartbreaking yet uplifting story of the girls of Meru and their brave steps toward meaningful equality for girls worldwide. In Kenya, one in three girls will experience sexual violence before age 18, yet police investigations are the exception.

See the entire documentary on Sunday afternoon, at FIN, or whatever they call the film festival these days.

Judy Haiven: Not even a hug for Truro rape victim

Judy Haiven: Not a kind word, not a cup of vending machine coffee, not even a hug. And don’t get us started on why the young woman was not privileged enough to see a doctor or a nurse.  This is what happened to a rape victim who walked into the Colchester East Hants Health Centre hospital in Truro last week.

Shhhambhala

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Shambhala, definitely not an enlightened space. Better stay away, kids!

Rana Zaman: Blame the predators and their enablers, not the religion

Rana Zaman, on the lessons we must draw from latest sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church. “My response – blame the predators, the higher ups and the institutions that protect these despicable abusers, but don’t blame the religion. The religion is not to blame for the vile acts of some of its practitioners.”

Media release: Students barred from campus Sexual Violence Prevention Committee

The Canadian Federation of Students-Nova Scotia (CFS- NS) has been informed that they are not invited to the first meeting the government’s newly reinstated provincial Sexual Violence Prevention Committee to address sexual assault on university campuses. This decision comes as continued retaliation by the Minister of Labour and Advanced Education, Labi Kousoulis, against the CFS-NS, after an op-ed was published in The Coast on March 15 that was critical of the Liberal government’s decision to vote down campus sexual violence legislation.

Open letter to Minister Labi Kousoulis: We will not be silenced in our advocacy

The Department of Education will no longer meet with CFS-NS representatives because it didn’t like a Coast op-ed written by its Chairperson, Aidan McNally. The editorial was critical of the government’s unwillingness to deal with sexual violence on campus. “It is our responsibility to hold elected governments accountable to students, not to placate them. If we are doing the latter, we are not serving our members’ interests. The decision of this government to shut students out of representative spaces due to criticism is unacceptable,” writes the CFS-NS provincial executive committee in an open letter.

The need for rural women’s marches

Applied to current events, no march on Saturday will be better than any other. However, ensuring that there are marches in rural as well as urban areas is crucial in signifying both difference in lived experience and togetherness in the struggle for female empowerment, writes Lori Oliver. She then takes a closer look at two key problems for women in rural Nova Scotia are difficulties accessing abortion services and a higher rate of domestic, intimate partner violence—both of which disastrously intersect with how women continue to earn, on average, 87 cents to men’s $1. Barriers faced by racialized groups are even more severe.