The director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Sexual Assault Crisis Prevention Centre says a recent police warning about poisoned drinks may represent a spike in date-rape attempts.
Labrador sexual assault rates symptom of inequality: MHA
May 25, 2021
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Recent media reports on the high rate of sexual assault in Labrador raised some eyebrows, but not in Labrador. The number of sexual assaults in the region, four times higher than the national average, aren’t a new problem nor one with an easy solution, observers say.
Torngat Mountains MHA Lela Evans said it’s important for statistics like this to be evaluated in the context of the social inequality people in Labrador experience, especially the Indigenous population and people living on the north coast.
“It’s social inequality that contributed to this statistic. The statistic is just a symptom. We have high suicide rates. We have higher numbers of children in care. If you look at all these separately you miss the big picture.”
Posted: May 19, 2021 7:00 AM NT | Last Updated: May 19
Demonstrations and campaigns backing Jane Doe, the complainant in a high-profile police sex assault case, dominated conversation about abuse of power in Newfoundland and Labrador last week. But while signs point to small changes, survivors say they don t yet trust the mechanisms of justice enough to report.(Malone Mullin/CBC)
Robyn LeGrow always told herself she d just had too much to drink that night.
LeGrow, who lives in St. John s, publicly recounted her own encounter with sexual violence just hours after a jury indicted police officer Doug Snelgrove, who sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman in her own home in 2014.