This is so sad. Long ago I volunteered with Rape Relief. This letter gives me shame.

Most of these suggestions have been in place at UBC for many years already (e.g. anonymous reporting, women's centres, safe and free transport etc.). Couldn't Rape Relief research this? Rape Relief has UBC student volunteers, did you even talk to them? The worst part is that by arguing for what already exists Rape Relief supports the status quo that permitted these recent assaults. That is reprehensible from anyone – ESPECIALLY a sexual assault center.

All of that space could have been given to suggestons that would make a difference. Sexual violence prevention "best practices" documents abound on the internet – this would not have been hard to figure out. Rape Relief seems to not even know the anti-violence literature... that's scary.

# 8: "Sanction men who commit sexual assault". Please obtain a dictionary and learn the meanings of sanction. The main meaning of sanction is "endorse". If you don't want this to mean "Endorse men who commit sexual assault" you really should use a word that says what you mean. The legal meaning sounds like "punish", but that meaning refers to economic or administrative penalties applied to nations or organizations, not individuals, so this really sounds like Rape Relief asking UBC to endorse rapists!!!

If Rape Relief wants UBC to make laws against rapists, please note laws are made by the government and laws against rape are already on the books. Rape Relief seems to be endorsing the status quo here too.

Finally "Provide mandatory effective anti-rape lessons to all students." WOW. You would force all of UBC's female students to submit to anti-rape lessons!? Including those who are Rape Relief members? Including those who have already experienced sexual assault?

This is horribly, horribly wrong. Its offensive and fascist and opposite to what I understood as Rape Relief's feminist politics and gender analysis.

I remember when Vancouver Rape Relief was a leading voice in feminism and advocating against violence toward women. Now I see things like this and its truly appalling.

The very first line in the first demand is all you need to know. It's political and not based in reality.

Silly political nonsense. 'Sanctions' for promotion of rape can mean anything, like arresting authors or stand up comedians, or somebody who downloads music deemed to be promoting rape.

-arm the women with weapons like spray and tell them to openly carry it, don't leave it in a backpack.

-consult the computer science dept for a campus security review. Physical security is the same as digital, plus they have experience to know what is false security, like the 'blue phones'. Access cards are also false security they are designed to monitor employees and students not prevent intruders. Teach dorm guards how to recognize social engineering when talking to men hanging around dorms that don't live there.

-chair meetings about student on student sexual assaults, and make sure to include artists especially writers, musicians and cartoonists, because if any speech suppression is decided upon they will be the first affected. They will also be unlikely to call for censorship as a solution

-safe walk/drunk walk should be 24hrs not ending @ 2am

-campus wide sms alert system like they do in the US

-free anonymous drug/pill testing like they do on Netherlands campuses and in Spain, so kids know what they are taking and don't end up passed out on fake mdma

-tell UBC security jarheads to quit harassing CITR/discorder at night and patrol the dorms for rapists hiding in stairwells

-tell the cops to patrol and not harass students smoking weed and instead look for rapists

" Promote women’s equality on campus by ensuring women have power and leadership roles in all different academic, administrative, and research positions and other university institutions and formation "

So ensuring (i.e. giving) women positions of power and leadership is equality? Because they shouldn't have to work for it like men do? It's not like we live in a time where those positions are reserved for men.

" Provide mandatory effective anti-rape lessons to all students. Teaching young men not to rape is probably the most valuable education a university can offer to its students. "

Why? Because men don't realize it's a bad thing? Let's spoon-feed this to a university filled with adults because that might change the way one illogical and possibly demented individual thinks? Senseless.

" Sanction men who commit sexual assault. Sanction men who encourage sexual assault. Sanction men who witness or are aware that other men are committing sexual assault and allow it. "

So it's ok for women to encourage it? and to allow it? Obviously not, so why not say "people", let's insinuate it's the sole responsibility of the male gender to take action.

This article is clearly steered from providing actual helpful and viable solutions to simply pointing blame to the male gender. The problem is one (maybe a couple) sick individual(s), not the whole sex. Its students vs assaulter, not men vs women.
Increase security patrol and devices, redirect resources, arrange shuttles, add fences, improve shady areas; these are real solutions... not sitting down with grown adults to tell them that "rape is wrong, don't do it."
I have nothing whatsoever against women or their rights, but do everyone a favor and leave the topic of equality out of a situation that has nothing to do with it.

The first line is nothing but your typical feminist BS drivel. Far from suffering from "inequality", women enjoy numerous untold advantages over men.

http://judgybitch.com/2013/10/18/do-women-have-special-privileges-that-m...

Well at least you are not calling for an idiotic surveillance state with cameras everywhere. That doesn't mean I agree with much, if any of the letter though.

I agree with 5 thru 9, although I would add "sanction women who know or witness," naturally that will provoke some level of outrage because any woman who is in such a position must be a victim already. The first point is pure ideological claptrap, the kind of rhetoric spouted by true believers in any cause. The second point loses itself in verbiage and three is pretty much a rehash with more rhetoric. The fourth point is wonderfully open-ended, isn't there a "women only" facility or two already? I know there used to be one an ex of mine volunteered at until she was told she wasn't "progressive" enough to keep going but that was in the early 90's.

Even tho I agree with point six it is a wonderful example of how even a single specific issue can never be allowed to stand alone when "social justice" is concerned. The issue is violence against women but they make a point that they wish to:

"Improve safety and accessibility to all areas of campus to everyone, including people with disabilities, women with small children, shift workers."

Since when was this about "accessibility?" Considering that "everyone" is all encompassing were the additional shout outs to other disadvantaged groups necessary? Having done my share of youthful "social justicing" I can well picture the committee that agonized over the wording of point number six. Overall good stuff for those of us who enjoy propaganda.

It is interesting how we have progressed to where it is accepted that holding followers of a religion responsible for actions of fanatics who allegedly share their faith is wrong, but it happens. Holding people responsible for the actions of others who share their culture or "race" is also rightly condemned. Most of us know that blaming the individuals of a country for the crimes of their leaders is also wrong. But here we have an ideology that holds an entire gender responsible for the actions of individuals.

The left has a tough time with accepting individual rights or responsibility and we are seeing that at opposite ends of the country. In Quebec many "progressives" support violating the Charter rights of individuals who have religious beliefs for the collective good. Here we have a "progressive" group refusing to blame the individual attacker and instead deciding that millions of us are to blame.

This article ignores some really common facts. While it may play a small part, women aren't generally victimized because of social inequality. Abusers frequently target those perceived as physically smaller and weaker (children, animals and yes, sadly women).

Also, victim blaming and staying safe seem to have been blurred somewhere down the road. If you have your headphones in and are out walking somewhere, you're not paying full attention to your surroundings. Whether you get hit by a car you didn't hear coming, or someone grabs you from behind, part of that is based on the choice YOU made. Young women do need to be educated on how to reduce the risk to themselves.

This is probably the worst article I've ever read on the Straight (and there have been some truly awful ones). It is thinly veiled misandry in the guise of trying to stop a terrible situation from continuing. Many comments here have provided actually helpful suggestions of how to tackle this issue. In the future, please avoid posting this kind of drivel.

Dealing with rape in this society is a frustration on many levels. With all the research and scientific evidence pertaining to rape and sexualabuse, there is reluctance to call in a sexologist who is an expert in the field of human sexuality.