
Since the 1970s, women around the world have raised awareness about sexual violence and the right to be safe in our streets, homes, schools, religious institutions, workplaces and communities at Take Back the Night marches. Typically, these are loud events, where women make a lot of noise to claim back our safety.
As TBTN events begin to wrap up for this year, those of us in Ontario need to be especially angry and loud. Doug Ford’s “putting people first” agenda has shoved survivors of sexual violence right off the bus with recent changes to “victim services” that come into effect at the end of the month.
Here’s a look at what those changes mean for sexual assault survivors in particular.
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
Ontario’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB), has been a tribunal – independent of government – that accepts applications from victims of violent crime and determines if they should receive financial compensation for their injuries, both physical and psychological. Victims could receive up to $30,000 as a one-time payment as well as up to $1,000/month to a total of $365,000 in ongoing payments.
An award from the CICB covered such costs as medical and dental treatment and therapy, loss of income, support for a child born as the result of a sexual assault, funeral expenses and counselling as well as compensation for pain and suffering.
Importantly, a victim of violent crime could make a successful application to the CICB whether or not they reported the crime to the police, whether or not a charge was laid and whether or not, if a charge was laid, the accused was found guilty.
While applications for compensation had to be made within two years of the crime taking place, this limitation was waived routinely for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“People do describe it as life-changing.”
Victim Quick Response Program
Despite the clear need for and success of the CICB, the provincial government has decided — with no consultation with the practice advisory committee — that it is not needed any more. Claiming a concern for victims who now “won’t be forced to relive their trauma through a long and complex adjudicative model,” as of October 1, the CICB will be replaced by the Victim Quick Response Program (VQRP+).
It may be the case that survivors of violent crime will no longer have to complete a long application form, which could be a traumatizing experience, but it is also the case that they will receive far less money, especially survivors of adult sexual assault.
Anyone wishing to make a claim for compensation under the CICB must submit their application by September 30th.
Under the new regime, direct victims, immediate family members and, in some cases, witnesses of serious assaults, sexual abuse, homicide or attempted murder, intimate partner violence, human trafficking and hate crimes can apply for financial assistance with immediate post-crime needs.
However, the person must have no financial resources of their own, and there must be no publicly funded programs available to assist them.
VQRP+ can assist a survivor with immediate expenses such as funeral costs, crime scene clean-up, emergency repairs to their home and limited short-term counselling. There is no compensation for pain and suffering.
Applications for financial assistance must be made within 45 days for most costs and within six months for short-term counselling.
The government promises a quick turn-around on applications: within three days for funerals, crime scene clean-up and emergency home repairs and within five days for short-term counselling.
The financial assistance is sparse: up to $5,000 for funeral expenses, as much as $1,500 for crime scene clean-up and a maximum of $1,000 for emergency repairs. And for short-term counselling? A limit of a mere $1,000.
And, perhaps most importantly, with rare exceptions, survivors must report the crime to the police, because the VQRP+ is administered across the province through police Victim Service agencies.
Who is left out?
While this change has negative implications for survivors of many crimes, it is sexual assault survivors who appear to be left completely in the cold. Sexual assault is not listed explicitly as one of the crimes covered by VQRP+. The requirement to report through a police station will mean few survivors of sexual assault even consider making an application. The same is true for the requirement to report within 45 days or 6 months – many survivors of sexual assault are not ready to take any steps for many months or even years after they have been assaulted.
Even for a survivor who does make an application, there is little waiting for her at the end of this enhanced, expedited process, with only $1,000 available for short-term counselling. One of the greatest strengths of the CICB awards was that they could cover ongoing counselling costs for the many years required by survivors of sexual assault who are dealing with trauma.
Attorney General Doug Downey claimed, through his press secretary Jenessa Crognali, that:
“VQRP+ ensures victims can access critical, tangible supports in the immediate aftermath of a crime.”
Survivors of sexual assault and those who support them disagree. Take Back the Night provides us with an opportunity to make noise about this. In Kingston, we will be doing just that on Thursday September 26th, beginning at 6:30 in Confederation Basin. Join us and add your voice to those telling Doug Ford not to ignore survivors of sexual assault.
Could you also include him in future articles. The reality is that many men have had this happen to them. It took me 40 yrs to start talking about it. We are often overlooked when discussion of Sexual assault survivours occurs.
Thank You
Michael
Michael: Thank you very much for this comment. Of course, you are absolutely right that men, as well as trans and non-binary folks, are victims of sexual assault as well as women. I use the female pronoun intentionally, because it is ciswomen, transwomen and those who appear to be women according to societal stereotypes who are the predominant victims and survivors of sexual violence. Sexual violence, regardless of the gender of the victim/survivor, is rooted in misogyny and patriarchy. To de-gender sexual violence entirely disrespects this reality and leads to inappropriate and unsuccessful political and other responses.
Unfortunately, keeping gender in our discourse about sexual violence also serves to make invisible those victims/survivors who are seen as female/woman, which is also disrespectful and wrong.
We need to find the right language so we can speak to both these important realities.
It is infuriating and disgusting. Agreed; under the Ford Govt we are turning our backs on sexual abuse survivors (I especially am thinking of survivors of historical and/or childhood abuse). A reminder to anyone reading this that you have a few days left when you can still submit applications to the CICB (deadline Sept 30th 2019).
I’m not able to be in Kingston tonight but my heart will be with all who are going to “make some noise” about the seeming return to ignoring victims of sexual assaults. How long must we teach the reality for victims of sexual crimes before the hard-ass men with the power to help become educated.
This is disgusting what Doug Ford is doing, especially after it was announced recently that Domestic Homicides rates have remained the same since 2010!???
Will the Attorney General still honour compensation decisions made years ago? My son is due his compensation when he turns 18 this November 2019.
With Victim Services the $1,000 won’t go anywhere for counselling as that’s to cover all victims in family?? So a mother with children has only a few visits???
I have worked with survivors of historical childhood sexual abuse for the past 21 years. These adult human beings have been so impacted by their abuse that a very high percentage of survivors struggle with functioning on a day to day basis such as holding a job, being out in the public, nightmares and flashbacks that affect their sleep, PTSD, the lack of funds for counselling and many other issues to numerous to mention in this format. Ford really has no idea the added stress and trauma he is adding to survivors lives with this totally uninformed decision that has been made. We all need to get out there and vote accordingly.
Is there a press release you can direct me to from the government on this decision?
This is insanity! And what about those of us that are currently receiving therapy costs that are paid out directly to our therapists? Will that simply be stopped?
Everyone who is awaiting a decision on their claim from the Criminal Compensation Board are being denied due process are they not? They won’t be able to appeal their decisions even though their files were ongoing at the time of the switch over (Sept 30) what about a class action law suit against the Attorney General for denying the people their right to appeal?
The aftermath of violence is not just immediate. Long term effects are real and a system to assist people should be too.
absolutely shameful what is happening. Thank you Pam for raising the alarm