This woman worries the prof who sexually harassed her will now be teaching her daughter

For Karen, a mother in her 50's living in Toronto, it's hard to leave the past behind.

She called into Cross Country Checkup's show on sexual misconduct, the #MeToo movement and the shifting balance of power between men and women, to talk publicly, for the first time ever, about sexual harassment she experienced by a professor in university many years ago.

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The catalyst for Karen to come forward this week was the fact that her alleged harasser is teaching at the same university one of her daughters is attending.

"I'm sickened by that," she told Checkup host Duncan McCue on Sunday. "I'm ... upset at the fact that I haven't come forward and maybe put a stop to that kind of behaviour."

Karen, who asked that her last name be withheld, insisted she did not want to file a lawsuit against the professor. However, she did want to warn the university in case other young women, like her daughter, are at risk.

"There are things that us survivors want, that aren't just a legal remedy," she said. "I am interested in some accountability. I am interested in that university knowing that this happened to me."

To sue or not to sue

Simone Jellinek, a Toronto-based lawyer, said validation is what most survivors want.

"I've never had someone walk into my office and say I want to sue because I want money," she said. "In fact, most people will readily accept no money or less money if they believe that they've been heard and something's been done about it."

Jellinek says the best way for Karen to get the attention of the university, without resorting to a lawsuit, is to write a formal letter, either from herself or through a lawyer on her behalf. But, because sexual assault policies differ from school to school, she says it's hard to say whether the complaint will be investigated.

Ironically, Jellinek says the only way to make sure change happens institutionally is through a lawsuit.

"You're hitting an institution where they feel it — in their pocket book."

#MeToo provides support to victims

What the #MeToo movement is doing, explains Jellinek, is allowing survivors to be heard and believed by a supportive community. She says the validation comes from the support of strangers — people who are not related to the victim.

"For too many years people were simply silenced or not believed. The opposite is happening and I think that is why the movement has the legs that it does."

Karen said she did not come forward when the alleged harassment initially happened because she felt it would have been brushed off.

"You know, 'get over it,'" she said.

She explained that the #MeToo movement has allowed a much "greater level of safety" to those who want to come forward, and a sense that she "might actually be believed."

"Because it's so often a 'he said-she said' situation, and the prospect of not being believed is devastating," she said.