Media Contacts

Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training

Media Relations
250 508-5030

Backgrounders

Preventing and responding to sexualized violence on campus

Facts about sexualized violence on B.C. campuses:

  • Nearly two-thirds of on-campus assaults occur during the first eight weeks of school.
  • In the workplace, one in four women (25%) and one in six men (17%) reported having been personally subjected to inappropriate sexualized behaviours in 2020.
  • Research indicates that Indigenous women, girls and young women, women with disabilities, lesbian and bisexual women, and gay and bisexual men are more at risk of experiencing violence. Black women and girls are disproportionately survivors of sexualized violence. In the United States, 35% of Black women experienced some form of contact sexualized violence in their lifetime.
  • 2SLGBTQ+ students experience rates of physical assault and unwanted sexual touching at double the rate of cisgender heterosexual students and experience attempted sexual assault and sexual assault at a rate 2.5 times higher than cisgender heterosexual students.

Actions already taken:

  • Since May 2017, all public post-secondary institutions are required to have sexualized violence policies, and all private degree granting institutions are required to have policies as of Sept. 1, 2021.
  • In 2019, the Province provided $760,000 to public post-secondary institutions to support work to prevent sexualized violence on campus.
  • The Province launched the Safer Campuses for Everyone resource (2021), a four-module, 75-minute training offered online that focuses on a decolonized and inclusive approach to discussing sexualized violence and consent. Students, faculty, and staff can access Safer Campuses for Everyone through their respective post-secondary institution's learning management system.
  • The Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Training Series, which launched in June 2021, is a series of openly licenced education resources that were developed by BCcampus in collaboration with representatives from the post-secondary sector throughout the province.
  • The Province provides more than $44 million annually to support more than 400 victim service and violence against women programs that offer emotional support, information, referrals and practical assistance to victims of crime, including survivors of gender-based violence.
  • The Province also provided $20 million between March 2020 and March 2021 for a multi-year Emergency Sexual Assault Services grant program to support the delivery of coordinated, community-based emergency sexual assault response services in regions throughout B.C. until March 2023.
  • Building on this multi-year grant program, Budget 2022 includes stable, ongoing funding of approximately $10 million annually, starting in April 2023, for trauma-informed, culturally safe, and inclusive sexual assault services to ensure survivors get the care they need.