Caron, Brittaney

Clarke, Alyssa

Redford, Melanie

English

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

VOLUME 28, NUMBER 1 43Toronto Star. January 15 2008. <http:/ /www.Thestar.Com/News/Gta/Article/294463>. Ac-cessed May 28 2009.Bumiller, Kristin. An Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.Editorial. “Sexual Assault At York U Dorm: Could It Happen Here?” RyersOnline. September 11, 2009. Online: <http://www.Ryerson-line.Ca/Blogs/106/Sex-Assaults-At-York-U-Dorm-Could-It-Hap-pen-Here.Html>. Accessed May 28, 2009.German, Amy. “On Campus Sexual Assault on the Rise.” Hour Oc-tober 25 2007. Online: <http://Www.Hour.Ca/News/News.Aspx?Iidarticle=13291>. Extract-ed May 28 2009.Johnson, Holly. Dangerous Do-mains: Violence Against Women In Canada. Toronto: Nelson Cana-da, 1996.Pelley, Lauren. “Third Sexual As-sault at York in 5 Months.” The Gazette. January, 17 2008. On-line: <http://www.Gazette.Uwo.Ca/Article.Cfm?Section=Frontpage&Articleid= 1150>. Accessed May 30, 2009. Razack, Sherene. “When Place Be-comes Race: Introduction.” Race, Space, And The Law: Unmapping A White Settler Society. Ed. S. Razack. Toronto: Between The Lines, 2002. 1-20. Y-File. “York Adds Extra Security in Wake of Sexual Assault In Vani-er.” September 10, 2007. Online: <http://www.Yorku.Ca/Yfile/Ar-chive/Index.Asp?Article=9050>. Accessed  May 30, 2009. Y-File. “Arrest Made in Vanier Resi-dence Sexual Assault.” September 21, 2007. Online: <http://www.Yorku.Ca/Yfile/Archive/Index.Asp?Article=9109>. Accessed May 30, 2009. Y-File. “Toronto Police Investigate a Sexual Assault at Founders.” Jan-uary 16, 2008. Online: <http://Www.Yorku.Ca/Yfile/Archive/Index.Asp?Article=9776>.  Y-File. “Improving York Safety: An Ongoing Mission.” January 21, 2008. Online: <http://Www.Yor-ku.Ca/Yfile/Archive/Index.Asp? Article=9790>.  Accessed May 30, 2009. Y-File. “Police Investigate Reported Sexual Assault in a Public Space on Sunday Afternoon.” March 18, 2008.  Online: <http://Www.Yorku.Ca/Yfile/Archive/Index.Asp? Article=10147>. Extracted On May 30, 2009.Y-File. “Police Investigate Reported Sexual Assault in a Public Space On Thursday Evening.” May 21. 2008. Online: <http://Www.Yor-ku.Ca/Yfile/Archive/Index.Asp? Article=10532>.  Accessed  May 30, 2009. Yip, Hilton. “York Ups Secu-rity.” Excalibur (Web Edi-tion) May 23, 2008. Online: <http://Excal.On.Ca/Cms2/ Index2.Php?Opt ion=Com_Content&Do_Pdf=1&Id=60 60>. Accessed May 28 2009.York University Security Service. “Campus Alert: Sexual Assault.” Sept. 8, 2007. Online: http://www.Yorku.Ca/Security/Campusalerts/Sexualassault-8sept07-Revised.Pdf>. Accessed May 30, 2009. Three years after the activities in the preceeding article took place, the culture of violence at York Univer-sity persists. According to an article in York’s student newspaper, Excali-bur, dated September 23rd, 2009, “Since January 2007, there have been 15 reported sexual assaults and 10 reported assaults causing bodily harm on campus, according to York security logs. Campus alerts have been issued for only 20 per-cent of them” (Birukova). Another assault was then reported in Bet-hune residence on November 19, 2009 (Kwan). A few months later, on April 21, 2010, a woman, a York community member, was raped by three men just outside of the York campus. This sexual assault became the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for student feminist activists. Sexual assault is a problem for many university campuses, and York, like many other universities, seems to have fallen short of developing ef-fective preventative measures, and adequate response and security. This indicates what might be perceived as an overall indifference on the part of the administration to the severity and impact of sexual assault for the entire student body, as well as for teachers and staff members.Following this last attack, a group of students of which we were part, decided to mobilize. On an evening in May of this year a coalition of York students and non-York allies assem-bled and organized an event that had multiple goals. Like other feminist, anti-racist, anti-oppression students before us, we sought to provide safe walks home from the campus (given by volunteers in teams of two), and to inform students about the culture of violence that we perceive as being indirectly perpetuated by the admin-istration. We took to the campus to occupy space, to show the administra-tion that students have a voice that will not be silenced, to protest that our tuition fees are not being put to proper use, and to make it clear that our sisters (and brothers) who have been directly and indirectly affected by sexual violence have our support. We wanted to show that rape is not simply something women should be Post Script from York Ubrittaney caron, alyssa teekah and melanie redford

Post Script from York U

https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/30779/28241

Post Script from York U

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)