'We have to work differently': Reported sexual assaults reach historic high in northwestern Ontario

Ontario Provincial Police say 2021 was the highest year on record for reported sexual assaults in northwestern Ontario, and officers and community organizations are changing the way they are responding to the violence.

About 430 sexual assaults were reported in the region last year, which is a 31 per cent increase from 2020.

"It is alarming and jarring, absolutely," said OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Dayna Wellock, but she adds there's more to the picture.

"So it isn't just the northwest region with the significant increase from 2020 to 2021, we're seeing that increase all across the province," she said.

Wellock, who ​​heads up the Victim Response Support Unit in the northwest region, said there's an number of factors contributing to the higher reported numbers of sexual assaults, including the impact of the pandemic on services and communities.

In 2017 and 2018, the number of sexual assaults reported in northwestern Ontario remained stable at about 397 reported cases, Wellock said. 

The first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic saw widespread drop in reported crime across Canada. Police services across the country reported criminal incidents fell by 18 per cent. 

Wellock said sexual assault reports also saw a major drop in the northwest that year due to COVID-19, as many people avoided coming into police station to make reports of these crimes.

While the number of reported sexual assault cases seem high in then northwest, Wellock knows rates of unreported sexual assaults are much higher.

According to an April 2019 report from the Department of Justice, it is estimated that only five per cent of the victims will report a sexual assault incident to police.

The fear of not being believed is something Wellock is striving to change. She said years of work has gone into to improving response and support for victims, and also believes the high number of reported sexual assault could be due to a increased trust in the reporting system.

"We've been working really hard, and in particular in my job since 2018, to get the message out to our survivors and victims of sexual assault, that we're here to listen, we're here to take the report and we're here to take them seriously," she said.

In northwest, OPP have developed a program called the sexual assault interview program. Wellock said officers have been receiving specialized training to interview victims with a trauma informed approach.

In Sioux Lookout and surrounding communities, 112 sexual assaults were reported. Making it the highest number in the northwest for 2021.