This article discusses sexual assault and may be triggering for some readers. The Kingston Sexual Assault Centre’s 24-hour crisis and support phone line can be reached at 613-544-6424 / 1-800-544-6424. The Centre’s online chat feature can be reached here. The Journal uses “survivor” to refer to those who have experienced sexual assault. We acknowledge this term is not universal.
Sexual harassment mustn’t go unpunished, no matter who perpetrated it.
The most severe punishment a local politician convicted of sexual harassment can currently receive is 90 days without pay. Doug Ford’s government defeated the widely supported Bill 5, which would have allowed local politicians found guilty of sexual harassment to be kicked out of office. Currently, politicians found guilty of such misconduct can’t be forced out of office until an election presents the opportunity for voters to vote them out.
In any other workplace, an employee convicted of harassing another can be dismissed. The current system fails to hold politicians to the same standard. Yet it’s arguably even more important for politicians to be disciplined for sexual harassment than it is for civilians.
For any survivor of sexual violence, having to face one’s abuser can be devastating.
Those assaulted by politicians not only risk encountering their abusers in person, but in media, as many politicians are public figures whose appearances are advertised. Politicians are equally ever-present in the policies they enforce, which inevitably follow the survivors of their abuse home from the workplace each evening.
The instatement of this Bill could save survivors the pain of seeing their abusers. Its opposition impedes the possibility of abusers incurring professional consequences for their violence and constitutes another failure of regulatory bodies in punishing sexual violence or supporting its survivors.
For the sake of all survivors of sexual violence, but particularly those who have been abused by politicians, Bill 5 must pass into law. Opposing the Bill suggests more care for perpetrators of sexual violence than it does for survivors.
It’s difficult not to suspect those politicians opposing the Bill of having personal reasons for doing so, covering for themselves and their powerful cohorts so they don’t lose their jobs.
Given both the benefits it offers survivors of sexual violence and its support from more than 200 municipalities, there’s no conceivable reason Bill 5 shouldn’t be allowed to pass into law.
Those who object to implementing greater disciplinary measures against sexual offenders citing concerns of false reports must be overlooked. According to a research released by the Government of Canada in 2021, only two to four per cent of sexual assault accusations are found to be false.
Nobody should be above the law, but particularly not those who form it.
—Journal Editorial Board
Tags
Bill 5, Doug Ford, sexual harassment
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