{"id":154903,"date":"2018-03-01T21:05:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T02:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=154903"},"modified":"2018-03-01T21:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T02:05:25","slug":"canadian-federation-of-students-wary-of-liberal-threat-over-campus-sex-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/03\/01\/canadian-federation-of-students-wary-of-liberal-threat-over-campus-sex-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Federation of Students wary of Liberal threat over campus sex assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Canadian Federation of Students, which has been pushing for legislation requiring every university and college across the country to have a stand-alone policy on sexual violence, wants to see more details about the promise. (Photo By Canadian Federation of Students, Public Domain)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA – The largest organization for post-secondary students in Canada is not quite ready to get behind a Liberal threat to consider withdrawing federal funding from universities and colleges that are not serious enough about dealing with on-campus sexual assault.<\/p>\n

The 2018 federal budget tabled this week included $5.5 million over five years to develop a national framework aimed at addressing gender-based violence at universities and colleges across the country, which student groups have welcomed as a show of strong federal leadership.<\/p>\n

But the Liberals are dangling that carrot alongside a vaguely defined stick.<\/p>\n

The budget said that beginning in 2019, the federal government will consider holding back funding from those institutions that are not putting \u201cbest practices addressing sexual assaults on campus\u201d into place.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Federation of Students, which has been pushing for legislation requiring every university and college across the country to have a stand-alone policy on sexual violence, wants to see more details about the promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was actually a point in the budget that was slightly concerning to us,\u201d said Charlotte Kiddell, national deputy chairperson of the association.<\/p>\n

The budget did not include any more details about what the Liberal government would consider to be best practices, which could mean different things to different people, she noted – especially when it comes to applying them to campuses across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t want to see federal funding tied to a kind of poorly defined standard that may not actually be the best measure for strong sexual assault policies according to students,\u201d said Kiddell, who wants to see sexual assault survivors involved in designing the standards.<\/p>\n

Michael McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, said he welcomed the federal leadership but would be concerned if the plan included the potential to roll back money intended for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective is to improve safety on campuses without detracting from the learning environment or hurting students,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n

Science Minister Kirsty Duncan was unavailable for an interview Thursday but suggested in a statement emailed through a spokesperson that the Liberal government considers the threat a last resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to work with provinces and territories, stakeholders, and experts to develop a harmonized national framework to address sexual assaults on campuses, and not withdraw funding,\u201d Duncan said in the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that universities and colleges can do better and we will work with them to achieve our common goal,\u201d she said. \u201cWith that said, if, after consultation and continued discussion, a post-secondary institution does not take action, our government will consider other options to eradicate gender-based violence on campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the Liberal government has not yet specified what kind of federal funding it has in mind.<\/p>\n

A 2016 report from the parliamentary budget officer showed the federal government contributed some $12.3 billion to post-secondary education in fiscal 2013-14, when taking things like research grants, student loans, tax credits and transfers to the provinces into account.<\/p>\n

Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, said the vague nature of the threat sends a signal that anything could be on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that I think they’d do it, but it is theoretically an unlimited punishment that they could mete out here,\u201d Usher said.<\/p>\n

He said that could set what he believes is a dangerous precedent, including by making it easier for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to make good on his own pledge to end federal funding to universities that fail to uphold freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re pointing the way to something that could be used for ill as well as good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba already have legislation requiring all universities and colleges to have stand-alone sexual assault policies.<\/p>\n

Organizations representing post-secondary institutions said they expect the federal government to take that into account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government is to set conditions for funding, it will need to be very clear about expectations and take into account the serious efforts that are ongoing at institutions, and in provinces and territories, across the country,\u201d Denise Amyot, CEO of Colleges and Institutes Canada, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA – The largest organization for post-secondary students in Canada is not quite ready to get behind a Liberal threat …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":154904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[47484,47485,14099],"class_list":["post-154903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-canadian-federation-of-students","tag-higher-education-strategy-associates","tag-liberal-government","mauthors-joanna-smith","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}