Once again, a new scandal erupted in the media: a basketball coach would have taken advantage of his position of authority in order to “groom” (in French, we sometimes speak of “pedotrapping”) players, to harass them and attack them. Last year, the same story happened, when we learned that three coaches from Saint-Laurent high school allegedly “groomed” and sexually assaulted players.
As usual, the government’s reflex will have been to request, last Friday, an administrative investigation which will probably reach the same conclusion as the one that looked into the abuses at Saint-Laurent secondary school: no adequate mechanism exists to protect young people. The problem with this type of investigation is that it individualizes the problem, that it treats these abuses as exceptions, whereas the problem is systemic, because it is present in most schools.
Solutions have already been proposed, but they are not implemented. One has to wonder what are the motivations behind such immobility. What we tend to forget is that it often takes several years, and above all several victims, before such a story reaches the media. Before these stories are known to the general public—when they are—it is the young people who suffer and who pay the price for the inaction of the institutions. Is it necessary to go at all costs to I to be heard and protected?
Ask young victims to be “brave” by filing a complaint through an online form (devoid of human warmth and which contains several superfluous steps), such as “I file a complaint”, or direct them to the “student ombudsman” clearly demonstrates the government’s amateurism in these matters. These are mechanisms that are not suited to situations of sexual violence.
The absence of specialized legislation, protocols and safety nets that are clear, accessible and adapted to the realities of young people, as well as our collective inability to protect them effectively against reprisals and revictimization betray a flagrant failure of our society in this regard.
“Right now, we are bombarded with messages urging us to speak out, as if it were easy [à faire], regardless of how we feel or what we need. We don’t feel comfortable denouncing, we don’t feel safe. The few times we try, it’s trivialized or minimized. »
More transparency
How many people in authority are there who deliberately turn a blind eye to sexual violence in order to protect the reputation of their institution?
In the case of Danny Vincent, a basketball coach under allegations of harassment and physical and verbal abuse (which he completely denies), we learned earlier that the Quebec Student Sports Network (RSEQ) had received in 2007 at least one complaint about him without taking note of this information.
Alone, the internal policies against intimidation do not allow an adequate supervision of sexual violence since their application is not mandatory. Even when they are applied, they are of variable geometry. For five years now, the collective La voix des jeunes compte has been calling for the creation of a framework law aimed at preventing and combating sexual violence in primary and secondary schools in Quebec to offer the same protections as those granted to students in cegeps and universities.
The situation could have been prevented if elementary, secondary, college and university educational establishments transferred the files of their employees when they change employers, files that would include reports of inappropriate sexual behavior. This request was made in 2020 when the Privacy Act was amended.
This claim is not trivial; it is well known that aggressors in the school network tend to change establishments once their behavior is known, because once they are in another establishment, the counter starts over at zero.
End impunity
In other words, the current state of the law allows aggressors who work in the school network to potentially continue to make victims, and this, for several years. The same goes for athletes and students who, too, can operate in several establishments with complete impunity, whether because they have been transferred to another school without any form of supervision or simply because they have finished their studies.
When are we going to take the time to listen to the people most affected by this issue, those who have continued to be let down time and time again? Thanks to political inaction, other abusers can operate with impunity in our establishments.
Madam Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, when are you going to get us out of this impasse? Mr. Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, are you going to close your eyes as your colleague Jean-François Roberge did during his last mandate? Minister responsible for Sports, Recreation and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, are you going to continue to deny that the law that we have been demanding for five years now is fundamental?
Prime Minister François Legault, when will you agree to meet with us? It’s time for your government to stop wandering. Students’ lives depend on it. In the meantime, our thoughts are with all the young people who should have been heard and protected, whether they are visible in the public space or not. #WeBelieve.