Sexual Violence Policy Review Consultation

October 18, 2021

Dear Members of the Carleton Community,

Carleton is committed to reviewing its Sexual Violence Policy every three years. Our last review was completed in April 2019 and we are now launching a broad and inclusive consultation process towards the next iteration of this important policy.

Carleton is committed to being a safe and inclusive community, and it is our shared responsibility to always strive to enhance our efforts towards education, prevention and response to sexual violence. We thank you in advance for your engagement.

Following a robust consultation and review process in 2018-19, the current policy now allows more flexibility to be supportive to survivors throughout the process, while at the same time respecting the requirements for procedural fairness. Conducting a review every three years helps us to ensure our policy is as responsive and supportive as possible.

Over the course of the year, we will be engaging with the community in this important process. As a first step, we have developed a draft plan outlining the consultation process itself. Members of the Carleton community are encouraged to review this draft consultation plan and to provide feedback through our consultation website throughout October.

Feedback on the draft consultation plan can be provided directly through our website or by email at svpolicy@carleton.ca.

As described in the draft consultation plan, there will be many opportunities to provide feedback on the policy itself through digital feedback, information feedback sessions and continued meetings with stakeholder groups. An important complement to the policy is Honouring Each Other, a campus prevention strategy for sexual violence. As part of this review, suggestions and feedback that may not be appropriate for the policy will be provided to the Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Committee for review towards further enhancing Honouring Each Other.

We look forward to working collaboratively with the entire community. Together, we can ensure that we further strengthen our survivor-centered policy and processes towards making our community safer and more inclusive.

Sincerely,

Benoit

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor