MSVU

Facilitator: How do you think older members of your family would respond to this policy? Whether parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents. Tell me who you are thinking of and what would they say. Participant 1: “Your…

Participant 1: Yeah, like how does that stuff work when you’re an international student? Like, are there additions for you because you’re an international student, so your needs may be different from that of a…

Facilitator: Participant 1, how do you think your parents would respond to the policy? Participant 1: They wouldn’t listen. They would tell me, “Call the police! Call the embassy!” They will tell me, “Call all…

Facilitator: What are some things we would ask ourselves when making suggestions [to a friend who has been sexually assaulted]? What would we need to think about before giving advice? Participant 1: Did you give…

Participant 1: But what kind of sexual assault is here? Facilitator: If anyone tries to touch your friend, like, that is a problem. Participant 1: I mean like, come on guys. We are all from…

Participant 1: Yeah, don’t wash afterwards. Participant 2: Yeah, ’cause the DNA is still on you. Participant 3: Like, if something happened to your friend, you should ask if they showered. […] Participant 1: If…

I guess [the policy is] relevant, but at the same time, it’s like, if you go through all these steps, what is the result? Am I actually going to get help? Or will it just…

Participant 1: What if it’s, like, a form of assault, but it’s not on the policy? They’re just like [claps hand to indicate closing the file]. Participant 3: It doesn’t say verbal. I don’t know…

Counselling downstairs, for me, I was like, “I cannot talk about it with someone who is male,” and it ended up being someone who was male [laughing]. […] Now for me, everybody is not same,…

Our demographic tends to be very quiet about it because there is a lot of shame associated with it. Opening up about it is not acceptable and can be terrifying because you’re afraid of, “Oh,…