Local agencies helping OPP to improve sexual assault investigations

The vast majority of assaults go unreported because many women don’t want to go through the trauma of the legal system.
Lauren Power, Executive Director of Muskoka Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services

In 2017, The Globe and Mail reporters Robyn Doolittle, Michael Pereira, Laura Blenkinsop and Jeremy Agius exposed disturbing sexual assault statistics regarding the police across the country. After making 250 freedom of information requests and collecting data from over 870 police jurisdictions, the investigation found that, on average, one in every five sexual assaults reported were dismissed as invalid. The rate was significantly higher in some areas.

While only three to four per cent of sexual assault claims are found to be false reports, in Muskoka’s two largest towns, more than half of cases were deemed unfounded according to the Globe’s investigation. Bracebridge’s unfounded rate of 56 per cent and Huntsville’s 55 per cent place them third and fifth respectively for the highest number of unfounded cases in the country.

A subsequent OPP review found that of the 5,322 unfounded cases reviewed across the province, 3,463 (65 per cent) were cleared correctly, 1,859 (34.9 per cent) could potentially have been cleared using another classification, and 12 (0.2 per cent) were reopened for investigation.

As part of its strategy to support victims going forward, the OPP announced new initiatives, including regional collaborative review committees in each of its five operational regions—Huntsville falls within Central Region—comprising representatives from a variety of agencies including sexual assault services, victim services, shelters, and child advocacy centres, as well as training officers from the OPP.

The committees review sexual assault cases by reading the notes made by police and reviewing video tapes, and then they provide their opinions and advice to the OPP. So far they are solely reviewing sexual assault cases but soon may be reviewing some domestic violence cases as well.

Lauren Power, Executive Director of Muskoka Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services (MPSSAS), an intersectional feminist organization dedicated to providing leadership, education, advocacy and trauma-informed support to end sexual violence and harassment, has been a member of both the Central Region and North-East Region committees since they were incepted in May 2018. She hopes they will continue long term.

“The purpose of this committee is to bring that awareness to police,” said Power. “The vast majority of assaults go unreported because many women don’t want to go through the trauma of the legal system. The expertise that we have as committee members is that we know how women experience violence and trauma by sharing their experiences, and we want to help the OPP change that (reluctance by victims to come forward).”

Representatives from other Muskoka agencies that sit on the committee include Jodi Golding from the Muskoka Victim/Witness Assistance Program and Eva Zachary from Muskoka Victim Services.

Power added that it’s too early to tell what impact the committees are having so far, “but I am really hopeful that a difference will be made in the future.”

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