Regina sexual assault prevention campaign hits local bars

Never blame the victim — that’s the message in YWCA Regina’s latest sexual assault prevention campaign and it’s being spread through coasters served with drinks at 21 local establishments in the city.

Hillary Aitken, the senior director of housing with the non-profit, said at the campaign launch on Thursday that the point is to start a conversation.

“Although we need to work on the bigger systems of police and legal systems, we also need to talk to each other and find out what we can do differently for those sexual assaults that are happening (but) aren’t caught in the statistics,” she explained.

According to the Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan, fewer than one third (23.7 per cent) of survivors in the province report their assaults due to fear of being blamed or not being believed.

It’s important to talk about the detrimental impact victim blaming can have in bars, Aitken noted, because a common way survivors are blamed is around their alcohol consumption.

“The reality is that if you’re intoxicated, you can’t give consent,” she said. “I think (bars are) a good place to start talking about the difference between consensual sex and sexual assault.”

Chantelle Kraushaar, general manager of Victoria’s Tavern, agreed, saying establishments have a significant role to play in helping preventing these types of assaults.

“It’s really important for us to be noticing these things and watching if customers, who don’t know other customers, are invading personal space or becoming aggressive or verbally abusive, and then stepping in and removing those people,” she explained.

As part of the campaign, YWCA Regina is also offering bystander training to servers and bartenders, so they know how and when to step in if someone appears to be sexually harassed.

According to Statistics Canada’s 2016 numbers, Saskatchewan’s rate of sexual assaults is double the national average.