Policy distrust

Participant 1: I’ve heard about the policy and everything, but I’ve also heard a lot about sexual assault cases in residence, and how it’s, like, a real problem. So, we know it’s a problem, but…

What another person just said was, how can you be sure that the person involved in the sexual assault case is not harmed in the process of filing a report or filing the case? Because…

If you decide to report, it says here about the support you get, and all the accommodations, and it says what the person who did the sexual assault is gonna get, like, a suspension, probation…

Like the other girl said, it needs to be shared; and it needs to reach more people to prevent further violence, to better support survivors, and to heal and recover. It is nice that it…

There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo which might not be understandable for people who maybe have a language barrier.[…] And because it’s just so long, like, a lot of people want to find the…

The other thing I would wonder about is, what is the plan to make sure that it continues to be relevant? […]. I would think that there – or I would hope that there is…

My first one is, who creates the policy? Um, there’s been a lot of debate at Saint Mary’s about who should actually be creating the policy and like, is this group pre-made? Does it pop…

Participant 1: I think it definitely reflects more of an institutional concern, like we discussed before, the policy is not really great for accessibility or understanding for students, especially a student in crisis. Just in…

Participant 1: [Laughs] The sexual violence response team creates the policy, and the sexual violence response team also happens to be the people that enforce the policy. Um, so, it’s bad- you can’t write the…

[Since] 1990, the entire world has changed a our policy has not. Comparing it to even to other schools, like, Dalhousie and St. FX, like, their policies are quite expansive and cover a lot of…