Annual Reports

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For the Reporting Period of
May 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025

Prepared by the Office of Human Rights and Equity for the Board of Governors of Lakehead University

1. Introduction

The Office of Human Rights and Equity has released this annual report to provide the Lakehead University community with information about sexual and gender-based violence prevention and education on our campuses as well as to fulfill the requirements as set out by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities in section 17 of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act which requires the following information to be reported annually by publicly funded universities and colleges:

1. "The number of times supports, services and accommodation relating to sexual violence are requested and obtained by students enrolled at the college or university, and information about the supports, services and accommodation.
2. Any initiatives and programs established by the college or university to promote awareness of the supports and services available to students.
3. The number of incidents and complaints of sexual violence reported by students, and information about such incidents and complaints.
4. The implementation and effectiveness of the policy." 2016, c. 2, Sched. 3, s. 1.
   
   (Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act RSO 1990 c.17 s.7)

Sexual violence is defined as "any sexual act or act targeting a person's sexuality, gender identity or gender expression, whether the act is physical or psychological in nature, that is committed, threatened or attempted against a person without the person's consent, and includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual exploitation."

(Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act RSO 1990 c.17 s.1)

This definition has been adopted by Lakehead University's Sexual and Gender Based Violence Response Policy. This report has been released to the Lakehead University Board of Governors in compliance with the requirements set out under Section 17(7) of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and to inform the University community on the effectiveness and implementation of our Policy with respect to incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.

2. Disclosures, Reports, and Complaints

The Office of Human Rights and Equity (OHRE) collects data from members of the Lakehead University community who report incidents of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) for the purpose of accessing supports and accommodations and to make formal complaints of SGBV. Pursuant to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act, the OHRE recognizes the following types of reporting with respect to incidents of sexual and gender-based violence:

Disclosure: A disclosure is received when a survivor discloses their experience of sexual and gender-based violence to a member of the university community.

Intake: The number of students, employees and visitors who seek out supports from the Office of Human Rights and Equity after experiencing or witnessing sexual and gender-based violence. Not every person who approaches the OHRE as an intake will utilize the Reporting or Complaints process.

Report: A report of Sexual and Gender based Violence occurs when the Office of Human Rights and Equity receives a written account of an incident of sexual and gender-based violence.

Complaint: A complaint of sexual and gender-based violence can be filed against a member of the University community. Complaints can be filed by survivors or those who witnessed the incident. Disclosures and reports do not necessarily trigger complaints unless the University determines that it has a legal obligation to conduct an investigation.

As per the Ministry requirements, the data in this report focuses on formal complaints and reports. Many reports that the OHRE receives will be resolved informally outside the Complaints process. However, some reports end up going through the formal complaints process. As the formal complaints process can only address incidents involving members of the Lakehead University community, many incidents of sexual and gender-based violence may go underreported as the formal Complaints process can only discipline and sanction respondents who are current members of the Lakehead University community. For other incidents, the OHRE provides referrals, supports and accommodations for employees and students who require them due to adverse impacts from an incident of sexual and gender-based violence.

Students, Faculty, and staff have the option of disclosing an incident to the Office of Human Rights and Equity without making a written report or formal Complaint. Access to supports and accommodations through the OHRE is available to survivors and does not require the submission of any supporting documentation or written report or Complaint.

Data from 2024 – 2025

The following table is for data on intakes, reports, and complaints for the period of May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025. These data are provided for the years 2024 – 2025 and 2023 – 2024 for the purposes of comparison and contrast.

The above table shows that the number of formal Complaints has remained relatively low and consistent over the past two years. One of the reasons for the relatively low number of formal Complaints is due to the fact that the investigation and adjudication of formal complaints are a far more complex and lengthy process than informal resolution processes. Most formal complaints are launched when an informal resolution is not appropriate to the level of misconduct or one or more of the parties refuses an informal resolution. A formal process may also be initiated when the Director of the OHRE determines that the nature of the allegations is not appropriate for the informal resolution process.

Many of the cases under the “reports” category are, in fact, informal resolutions, which involve coordinating accommodations and support services as well as resolving the matter through an alternative resolution process between the Complainant and Respondent. In general, these agreements include interim measures against the Respondent (e.g. no-contact orders) as well as mandatory training for the Respondent with the OHRE.

Examples of informal resolutions the OHRE has facilitated include:

• Education and training given to the Respondent regarding their conduct
• A no-contact order along with other provisions such as moving to a different residence
• A mediation agreement between the Complainant and Respondent

With respect to the numbers of intakes and reports, there has been similar numbers of reports from year-to-year. Some of the factors that may be attributed to this consistency include:

• External Incidents: our policy offers support and accommodation to survivors regardless of whether the violence happened on or off campus or relates to the conduct of a university community member; an increase in external incidents would lead to an increase of intakes on campus
• Increased reporting (vs. increased incidents): Over the past few years, we have increased our prevention and education initiatives, which increases the awareness of the OHRE and its services. As the research demonstrates that the vast majority of incidents of sexual and gender-based violence on university campuses is not reported, increased awareness of services such as the OHRE may result in increased reporting. This does not necessarily mean that increased reporting is the result of increased incidents.
• Time of incident vs. time of report: Our policy has no time limit for making a report. As such, reports made during the reporting period may relate to incidents that took place prior to the reporting period.

3. Accommodations and Supports

When students make a disclosure or report of sexual and gender-based violence to the OHRE, we provide students with academic or non-academic accommodations as well as referrals to on and off-campus supports. Examples of the accommodations and supports provided to students include academic accommodations; referrals to counselling, Student Health and Wellness and Student Accessibility Services; safety planning and assistance in connecting with additional resources on campus and in the community such as the Police, legal supports, Victim Witness Program, health services, women’s services, and others. We have added the educational sessions with both survivors and Respondents to increase awareness of sexual and gender-based violence-related issues as our preventative actions.

The following table sets out the number of accommodations and supports provided to students for the reporting period of May 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025:

4. Prevention and Education Initiatives

In 2024 - 2025, the OHRE continued to engage in prevention and education initiatives with students, Faculty, and staff. These prevention and education initiatives included training and workshops on consent, healthy relationships, supporting survivors and witnesses, and sexual and gender-based violence reporting and complaints processes.
The following table sets out the number of prevention and education initiatives for the reporting period of May 1, 2024 – April 30, 2025:

The above table shows that, during the reporting period, the OHRE conducted 11 education and training sessions and 24 orientation and information sessions related to Sexual and gender-based violence. Examples of the education/training and orientation/information sessions include the following:

• Training session for Residence Assistants with ResLife in Thunder Bay and Orillia
• Training session with first-year law students.
• Training session with upper-year Kinesiology students.
• Training session for upper-year Engineering students.
• Training session with student athletes in Orillia.
• Research panel in memorial of December 6th in collaboration with LUSU’s Gender Equity Centre/Pride Central
• Orientation/information sessions such as Sexual Health Bingo, Residence Fall Fest, Consent Week, LUSU Fantasy Fair, Block Party, Well-U Wednesday, New Faculty Orientation

In addition to the above, the OHRE collaborated on a number of initiatives and participated on a number of committees and partnerships to advance sexual and gender-based violence prevention, including the following:

• Developed new D2L training modules for Lakehead students and updated and improved the current certification for SGBV at Lakehead University
• Developed a Risk Assessment Tool related to SGBV behaviours to assist in student case management at Lakehead University
• Conducted a literature review of over 150+ recent peer reviewed publications on SGBV in higher education and the best practices for training and program development
• Collaborated with Residence to improve reporting pathways for survivors of SGBV in residence
• Collaborated with GEC/Pride Central to address on-campus issues and discrimination faced by LGBTQ2S+ community members such as transphobia
• Participated as a member on the Student Safety Intervention Team (SSIT), which addresses situations of acutely elevated risk and intervention planning

5. Policy

Over the reporting period, we have continued to monitor and evaluate the efficacy of our Sexual and Gender-based Violence Response Policy and Procedures. While there were some minor updates to the Policy in 2023, the last major update was in 2022. As such, we will begin a consultation process in the 2025 – 2026 academic year to review and revise the policy and Procedures.

In monitoring and evaluating the Policy, we have noted that the investigation and adjudication processes are too lengthy and complex, which is leading to longer-than-expected resolutions of formal complaints for both the Complainant and Respondent. We are currently in the process of an initial review and revision of the Policy, and expect to start consultations in the fall of 2025.

In addition, we have noted that the Policy does not have sufficient provisions for measures or consequences for Respondents who breach interim measures. This past year, we consulted on the review and revision of the Student Code of Conduct (Non-Academic), which resulted in a change to that policy that would, more efficiently, permit violations of SGBV-related interim measures to proceed under the Student Code.