N.W.T. aims for new way to report sexual assault

The Northwest Territories government is inching closer to a mechanism for people to report sexual assault without going directly to police: third-party reporting.

"Right now survivors of sexual assault have two options available to them. They can either report to police or not report," said Leanne Gardiner, director of community justice and policing with the N.W.T. Department of Justice.

RCMP and the territorial government met with health and victim services staff from across the territory, as well as women's shelters, youth organizations and LGBTQ2S advocacy groups.

The expertise of roughly 30 frontline workers and advocates will influence the development of a third-party reporting mechanism and advocate reviews of sexual assault investigations cleared without charge.

The victim advocate review committee will inspect unfounded cases for systemic and societal biases. The reviews are intended to produce recommendations to police and restore public confidence.

"We know that survivors of sexualized violence are faced with the most challenging barriers to reporting these crimes to police," said Gardiner.

Gardiner said there is evidence that third-party reporting and advocate reviews are working elsewhere.

They make victims more confident that when they do report, "they'll be believed, they'll be supported and that they'll be treated with dignity and respect," she said.

In Yukon, anyone 19 years of age or older, regardless of gender, can make use of third-party reports. The third party sends all the information, including the perpetrator's name to RCMP.

A victim's details are removed, but the third-party maintains a corresponding file number if they decide to go to police at a later date.

It allows police to collect information on alleged crimes and communicate with several victims through an intermediary if they see pattern of victimization by the same perpetrator. The intermediary can ask victims if they want to come forward.

Third-party reporting establishing trust in Yukon

Barbara McInerney is the executive director of Kaushee's Place Transition Home in Whitehorse, where third-party reporting has been in place for four years.

"It has developed more trust with victims to come forward in whatever way they choose and in the timeframe they choose to do it," she said.

Perpetrators are known to the victim in 92 per cent of Yukon cases. In Yukon, fewer than 10 per cent of victims report to police, and of that 10 per cent, the conviction rate is around two per cent, she said.

With low reporting numbers, valuable "intel is being missed by police," said McInerney ​​​​​.

"This is one way to get a sense of who is committing what crimes in our territory without that victim having to have the added incredible stress of going through the court process," she said.

In 2014, RCMP Sergeant Calista McLeod and Renée-Claude Carrier of the Yukon Women's Transition Shelter, started to research third-party reporting. It took roughly a year to develop.

No timeline on implementation in N.W.T.

The N.W.T. government and RCMP have no deadline on making third-party reporting a reality, but expert input from this weeks' meetings will influence what it eventually looks like, said Gardiner.

The government heard from Sunny Marriner, an expert in the Philadelphia model, which uses advocate case reviews to keep police accountable and make sure they thoroughly investigate reported violence against women.

The model has been replicated in communities across the United States to restore trust in how police treat victims and investigate allegations.

Marriner's advocacy was the subject of a Globe and Mail investigation that showed Canadian police conclude one in five sexual assault cases as unfounded. That designation is used if an investigation believes no attempt or violation of law took place.  

Between 2010 and 2014, Yellowknife RCMP designated 132 of 363 sexual assault allegations as unfounded.

The Philadelphia Model is mentioned in a 2017 review national review by RCMP, which includes ways improve police handling of sexual assault cases and treatment of people who report it.

It acknowledged that improperly labelling cases as unfounded could discourage victims from reporting.

It states that victims are at greater risk if files are incorrectly closed, emboldening perpetrators to believe they're unlikely to be caught.