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“We could be leaders or we could be lemmings,” said Dawn Moore, an associate professor of law and equity chair of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association. “I think it helps our reputation to say, ‘We acknowledge that this happens on our campus, as it does on every other campus. And instead of trying to sweep it under the rug, instead of not naming it for what it is, we’re going to tackle the problem head on and we’re going to address it.”

All Ontario universities must adopt a standalone sexual violence policy to comply with Ontario’s Sexual Violence and Workplace Harassment Action Plan — Bill 132 — which became law March 6. The bill followed the 2015 ‘It’s Never OK‘ report on the issue that included a call “to seed generational change in schools and to end rape culture on campuses.”

Consultations on the policy began more than a year ago and the university brought in an outside consultant to oversee the meetings and write a draft policy. That draft was unveiled at a March 23 meeting that quickly turned confrontational.

“It was incredibly combative. Basically we couldn’t even get past the preamble,” Moore said. “People were extremely upset. There were a lot of survivors in the room who were triggered.”

While Moore, the students and union representatives argued to include the terms “rape culture” and “survivor centric” in the preamble, most of the stakeholders from the administration were opposed and voted to remove the only mention of “rape culture” in the draft, where it was included in a list of definitions.