Bill 204 would require Manitoba campuses to disclose sexual assaults

A new bill proposed by the NDP would require Manitoba's universities and colleges to disclose sexual assaults on campus.

The private member's bill was introduced Wednesday by NDP MLA Wab Kinew, who is the party's education and training critic.

Bill 204 would require all of Manitoba's post-secondary institutions to develop sexual violence and sexual harassment policies in consultation with their students. It would also require campuses to make sure students were aware of those policies and to publicly report when "activities related to their policies" occurred.

"What I hear students talking about nowadays is the standard of, 'Yes means yes.' Educating students about what that means," Kinew said. "Obtaining consent is important. Administators, staff, people on university campuses have to play a role in that."

Kinew said the bill was in the works prior to public outcry over a Brandon University policy that required to students who were sexually assaulted sign a behavioural contract that forced them to say silent about the assault.

• Brandon University sexual assault victims forced to sign contract that keeps them silent
• Brandon University halts contracts requiring sex assault victims to keep silent

The contract required victims not to speak to the person involved in the incident or anyone else except counsellors. After an on-campus group spoke out about the policy, saying it re-victimized survivors, the university scrapped it.

The university has also come under fire for plagiarizing a sexual assault task force report.

The task force report contained many identical phrases to a similar report from Queen's University released last April.

The university has since hired a full-time anti-sexual violence therapist and co-ordinator.

The University of Manitoba has previously announced it isworking on sexual assault protocols, while the University of Winnipeg unveiled theirs in 2015.