UBC sexual assault victim writes article to set the record straight

The Ubyssey student newspaper has carried a first-person account by one of the women sexually assaulted at UBC.

Under the byline "None", the woman describes how she waved at a man before she was about to retrieve her keys to enter her home on Fairview Crescent. 

"An attack like this one is personal," she writes. "I feel violated as I walk around campus overhearing conversations about 'that girl who was attacked,' or sitting in class within earshot of classmates discussing my attack.

"Imagine sitting in class and having the professor bring up your sexual assault. I wanted to stand up at say, 'Yo, this is my story. Who are you to talk about how I could have prevented this? Don’t I have the right to walk home alone?' "

Read her article here.

I've admired the Ubyssey for its coverage of the controversy over FROSH week and for reporting on the sexual assaults on the Point Grey campus.

But that didn't prevent barbs being sent my way over Twitter in connection with my recent article laying out what Canada's highest court has said about promising absolute confidentiality to sources.

It was in response to a separate Ubyssey article citing an unnamed source claiming that she had been sexually assaulted—which would be the fourth weekend sexual assault on the Point Grey campus this school year.

Relying on unnamed sources in Canada is tricky terrain for journalists, as the Vancouver Sun's Rick Ouston learned in 2002 when he promised absolute confidentiality to two nurses with allegations about a surgeon at Sunny Hill Hospital.

In that case, Justice Brenda Brown ordered Ouston to reveal his sources before the surgeon's lawsuit had even gotten to examination for discovery.

The newspaper settled the case out of court rather than divulge the nurses' identities or have its reporter sent to jail indefinitely for disobeying a court order.