On December 5, 2024, Ophea, Egale Canada, the Ontario Coalition for Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC), and White Ribbon collaboratively hosted a webinar in connection with the OCRCC’s Draw the Line Campaign (#DTL16Days). Maximizing Consent: Practical Ways to Talk About Consent Education featured a fireside chat between Dr. Christine Mazumdar (she/her) and Julie S. Lalonde (she/her) and concluded with a Q&A panel moderated by Ophea Projects Lead, Jenn Thompson (she/they). Funding support for this webinar was provided by the Government of Ontario. The views expressed and information presented in this webinar represent those of Ophea, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Province.
Dr. Mazumdar, and women's rights advocate and public educator, Julie S. Lalonde shared strategies for elementary and secondary educators alike about manifestations of gender-based violence (GBV) in the classroom and highlighted the importance of approaching GBV prevention education with intention. Attendees received support and tools intended to equip them to lead discussions on GBV in their classrooms, recognize trauma responses, and practice bystander intervention using a trauma-informed lens. The session also established connections between GBV, GBV prevention education, and the Health and Physical Education (H&PE) curriculum.
GBV includes any form of behaviour – including psychological, physical, and/or sexual behaviour – that occurs due to an individual’s gender and is intended to control, humiliate, or harm the individual. Structural systems, such as racism, ableism, and transphobia affect the ways that GBV manifests and impacts individuals.
Consider the following…
- One in three girls or women will experience sexual violence inside or outside of an intimate relationship (Statistics Canada, 2019).
- One in six boys or men have experienced sexual assault or sexual abuse (1in6, 2020).
- One in two trans people will experience sexual violence. Trans people are the targets of specifically directed gender-based violence; 20% had been physically or sexually assaulted for being trans, and another 34% had been verbally threatened or harassed (Trans PULSE Project, 2015). It is important to remember that data on trans and/or non-binary people remains under-researched and under-reported and that these statistics may not fully represent the lived realities of this group.
- 70% of trans youth in Canada have experienced sexual harassment (Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, n.d.).
- Bisexual women are twice as likely to experience sexual violence in their lives than heterosexual women (Statistics Canada, 2020).
- Girls and women with disabilities are four times more likely than girls and women without disabilities to experience gender-based violence (Statistics Canada, 2017).
- Indigenous women are three times more likely than other women to experience all forms of violence (Statistics Canada, 2019).
- Less than 10% of sexual assaults are reported to police (Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, n.d.).
- Over 80% of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows (Statistics Canada, 2017).
When the widespread, insidious nature of GBV is understood, it becomes clear that educators and other school community members share a responsibility to meaningfully respond when it occurs in learning environments. While effective intervention strategies are a crucial aspect of GBV prevention education efforts, our panelists emphasized that it is equally important to encourage long-term cultural shifts by raising awareness of GBV and working with students to co-create cultures in our learning environments that are safe, affirming, and inclusive for every student!
Meet the Panelists
Dr. Christine Mazumdar
Dr. Christine Mazumdar (she/her) is an artist, scholar, athlete, and teacher. Christine is an instructional designer at Egale Canada and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the department of Art Education at Concordia University. Her SSHRC/Sport Canada research project “Touch at a Distance,” examines equity, agency, and consent in Canadian coaching pedagogy.
Julie S. Lalonde
Julie’s work, guidance, and feedback have heavily influenced Ophea’s suite of Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education resources. A franco-ontarienne originally from Northern Ontario, she is based in Ottawa. Julie works with various feminist organizations dedicated to ending gender-based violence, engaging bystanders, and building communities of support. In 2011, she created Draw the Line, a province-wide campaign to engage bystanders in ending gender-based violence. Julie has won numerous awards for her work including the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. Julie travels across Canada and internationally delivering trainings to elementary and secondary students, educators, and professionals from many sectors including law, politics, and medicine.
Session Recap
Our session began with a fireside chat between Dr. Christine and Julie, during which they shared insights from their work in consent education. Some key questions our hosts responded to include:
How would you define consent?
Both Dr. Christine and Julie emphasized the importance of de-stigmatizing the concept of consent, and provided examples that reflect the many ways discussions of consent can occur outside of romantic/sexual relationships. Understanding the active role that consent plays in all our relationships and interactions allows for a wider range of conversations to be undertaken with students, increasing their capacity to identify healthy relationships and spark conversations amongst their peers.
In your field of work, how do you interpret “maximizing” consent?
All too often, consent is thought of as a “minimum standard” to adhere to, but our panelists encouraged attendees to reframe this concept to instead provide as many opportunities as possible for individuals to affirm their consent in an ongoing, collaborative process. When we move past the idea of consent as a set of rules and approach it from a lens of curiosity and mutual respect, new possibilities to explore these topics in the classroom arise.
What are some practical strategies for scaffolding discussions around consent in elementary and secondary school settings?
At the elementary level, Dr. Christine and Julie encouraged using boundary setting with children and youth as an entry point into discussion of consent. If we are to create cultures of consent, students need to be equipped not just with the tools to proactively set and affirm boundaries of their own, but with the capacity to navigate rejections and refusals from their peers. Strategies that help students practice saying or hearing “no” with confidence and compassion, such as role-playing, can help introduce and develop these skills in meaningful ways. When students are provided with opportunities to confidently and safely explore these concepts at a young age, they are supported in becoming compassionate, empowered individuals.
For older students, creating opportunities to integrate the ways that consent manifests outside of romantic and sexual relationships into these discussions can provide entry points that are less intimidating for students while still enabling them to explore and apply these crucial concepts.
Following the fireside chat, Draw the Line resources provided a starting point for an engaging group discussion. Using the classroom-ready scenarios, attendees had opportunities to practice applying concepts discussed in the fireside chat to real world examples, solidifying the ideas and expanding their capacity to use these resources themselves. The floor was then opened for attendees to pose their questions directly to Dr. Christine and Julie, which provided educators with an opportunity to explore specific examples from their classrooms. Ophea’s Jenn Thompson joined our panelists, moderating the questions and providing connections to Ophea resources that can support GBV discussions in the classroom.
Ophea and our Draw the Line partners extend our deep thanks to Dr. Christine, Julie, and all attendees for learning with us. We look forward to continuing to engage our audience in important discussions about gender-based violence prevention. Keep an eye out for more upcoming initiatives from Ophea in this space, including a webinar in March (more details coming soon!).
Thank you to our friends at Egale Canada, the OCRCC, and White Ribbon for collaborating with Ophea in the Draw The Line Partner Series.
Let’s keep the conversation going! Share with us how you’re using Ophea’s Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education Resources as conversation starters in your class and school by tagging @OpheaCanada on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. To stay up-to-date on Ophea professional learning offerings, resources, and supports sign up for Ophea’s e-newsletter, eConnection.
References:
1in6. (2020). Get Information: The 1 in 6 Statistic. 1in6. https://1in6.org/statistic/
Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). (n.d.). Statistics: Sexual Violence in Canada. https://sexualassaultsupport.ca/statistics-sexual-violence-in-canada/
Statistics Canada. (2017). Police-reported sexual assaults in Canada, 2009 to 2014: A statistical profile. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/54866-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2019). Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00017-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2020). Sexual minority people almost three times more likely to experience violent victimization than heterosexual people. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200909/dq200909a-eng.htm
Trans PULSE Project. (2015). Transgender People in Ontario, Canada: Statistics from the Trans PULSE Project to Inform Human Rights Policy. https://transpulseproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Trans-PULSE-Statistics-Relevant-for-Human-Rights-Policy-June-2015.pdf