Its name? SlutWalk. Its aim? For women to show they’ve had enough.

Fed up with recent comments by a Toronto police officer that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” a group of women is organizing a march to express their frustrations.

Heather Jarvis is both a SlutWalk co-founder and one of four key founders of the planned march. She said she still has strong ties to Toronto, where she lived before moving to Guelph to attend university.

She read about the police officer’s comments in the York University school newspaper Excalibur and was outraged. Jarvis connected online with Sonya Barnett, a York University graduate, and the two women decided it was time to take action. They, along with three other women, Alyssa Teekah, Jeanette Janzen and Erika Jane Scholz, joined forces.

“Our first idea was to have a walk to express our frustrations and demand better,” Jarvis explained. “From there we decided we needed support and decided to use online media.”

The group created a webpage, Facebook page and Twitter account.

Const. Michael Sanguinetti made the comments at a safety forum held at Osgoode Hall Law School on Jan. 24. He later apologized, saying he was “embarrassed” by his remarks.

Jarvis said one of her biggest concerns with the police officer’s comments was that they blamed the victims of sexual assault, something, she said, that is wrong. Jarvis pointed to a current sexual-assault case in Cleveland where 18 men have been charged in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl. The town remains divided on whether the girl, who dressed older than her age, and her mother were partly at blame.

“Nobody asks for this,” she said. “Nobody.”

Jane Doe, the Toronto woman who successfully sued the Toronto police in 1998 after a judge ruled she was used as bait to capture a serial rapist, said SlutWalk “is one of many responses that are part of the discourse,” but it’s an important part of a larger discussion that is not being had.

“It’s part of many responses of violence against women. It’s part of a larger discourse,” she told the Star. “The problem is we don’t engage in, we refuse to engage in, the discourse, especially the media.”

The choice to use the word “slut” in the name of the walk was twofold. Firstly, it comes from the police officer’s comments. Secondly, Jarvis said it’s time women reclaimed the word.

“If ‘slut’ is thrown around at so many people day in and day out . . . fine,” Jarvis said. “We will take it and take it to mean someone who is in control of their sexuality.”

She stressed that the name is not meant to suggest that women have to “dress like sluts” in order to attend the march.

“If you look a certain way, if you dress a certain way, come as you are,” Jarvis said. “It’s not about clothing; it’s not about a look.”

She said, legally, sexual assault is not about what a woman wore or did: It boils down to consent.

“You should be able to be whoever you are” and not have to worry about the possibility of being assaulted, Jarvis said.

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“(The) police and the justice system should be there to back us up.”

The walk is open to everyone, not just women. Organizers are asking protesters to meet at Queen’s Park at 1:30 p.m. on April 3. At 2 p.m., after speeches, the march will commence south on University Ave., and then east on College St. It will end up in front of Toronto Police headquarters at Yonge and College Sts.