For crisis intervention or mental distress: Provincial Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line:
1-888-429-8167

For Confidential support to post-secondary students in Nova Scotia:
Good2Talk: 1-833-292-3698
or text GOOD2TALKNS to 686868

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program for the Halifax area:
902-425-0122

Get toll-free numbers for other Nova Scotia regions

 

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You don’t want strangers touching your body

Facilitator: We do have a lot of body contact with friends.
Participant 1: But you don't want strangers touching your body. You can have my approval to touch me everywhere, but if a stranger touches me, I will feel very uncomfortable. It's a little weird for a stranger to touch my body. And if the respondent has sexual activities with me, then the situation becomes very serious and we should punish this respondent as criminal.

Recommendations

  • Engage in activities to develop cultural responsiveness as it pertains to sexual violence prevention and response. Apply culturally responsive practices in these areas.

  • Consider how a student's identities might affect their expectations and concerns when accessing supports following a sexual assault, or when involved in a sexual assault investigation.

  • Describe possible legal and institutional consequences for respondents found to have engaged in sexual violence. Provide indication of the range of consequences likely to follow a range of policy violations.

  • Provide students with information about what can serve as evidence of sexual assault for the purposes of a university investigation. This information should appear in the policy itself and in educational materials about the policy.

  • Clarify the relationship between university policy and the criminal justice system.