Sask. rural, remote communities need better sexual violence education, more support: report

Warning: this article contains information about sexual violence.

A preliminary report released this week says there are gaps in sexual violence support and education in Saskatchewan, particularly in rural and isolated communities.

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan (SASS) launched the report on Tuesday, alongside the Community-University Institute for Social Research, University of Saskatchewan and Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. These initial research findings come after consulting with 228 people from 18 communities.

The report says the province needs better education on sexual violence, particularly for groups facing high rates of victimization including Indigenous people, newcomers, LGBTQ people, seniors and people with disabilities — especially those involved in substance use, in poverty or without proper education.

It also points out a lack of available support in rural areas.

The Piwapan Women's Centre in La Ronge, located about 215 kilometres north of Prince Albert, offers services like shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence, transition housing, outreach programs and support for people in abusive relationships for more than a dozen northern and remote communities.

Executive director Karen Sanderson said the north doesn't have enough support and education on domestic and sexual violence, arguing the region has enough for its own specialized unit.

"We have community members that don't always have access to travel south, so they are falling through the system gaps. We have mental health workers who are overloaded with cases, where a lot of it is from past sexual assault, past domestic violence, past child abuse issues, which in the healing process takes a lot longer than the general mental health work," Sanderson said, stating people have been calling for more support for years.

"Anything that explores the needs of our northern communities is always beneficial, especially when it comes to trauma-informed, trauma-based counselling [and] healing."

She said there also need to be more treatment centres, specialized services and healing components to address the "residue and trauma of residential school, poverty, addictions [and] abuse in general."

The report said Indigenous women, women with disabilities, sex workers, and gender or sexually diverse people are at higher risk. It also said many LGBTQ people find it difficult to access services in rural or remote communities.

According to Statistics Canada, about 46 per cent of Indigenous women in the Prairie provinces have reported being sexually assaulted since they were 15 years old, compared with 36 per cent of non-Indigenous women. 

Somiya Tabassum, program lead for the education initiative, said the research has suggested that high rates of sexual violence are "rooted deeply in our violent colonial legacies."

"We can't talk about sexual violence without taking into account the violent legacies the Indigenous populations are facing," Tabassum told Leisha Grebinski, host of CBC's Saskatoon Morning.