What’s Current: No charges laid in Val d’Or sexual abuse scandal

Women console each other after learning that Val d'Or cops will not be charged. Photograph: Radio-Canada
Women console each other after learning that Val d’Or cops will not be charged. Photograph: Radio-Canada

Crown announces that six Quebecois police officers will not be charged with the sexual abuse of 37 native women. Indigenous leadership argues that the failure to charge will discourage other victims of sexual assault to come forward.

Radio host Mike Bullard charged with stalking a former colleague, with whom he once had a dating relationship. The five criminal charges include hundreds of harassing text messages and phone calls, and dropping by the reporter’s house in violation of a previous court order.

For women, it’s not just the glass ceiling, argues Smith College professor. There’s glass on all sides:

“This is obviously not the world I want for my students. It’s time to take a sledgehammer to the glass walls. The best way to stop coercion is to make the invisible visible by sharing our stories. When we can better name what’s happening, we can begin to change the narrative.”

More than 60 members of Canada’s literary community, including writers like Margaret Atwood, call for a probe into UBC’s firing of Creative Writing department head. Unfortunately they forgot to call for justice for the women who came forward to call attention to his behaviour.

Police are looking for a man in connection to the murder of Connecticut woman. Elmer Ruono abandoned the woman’s five-year-old daughter at a bus  terminal, leading to the discovery of the woman’s body.

 

 

Jess Martin

Jess Martin is a public relations professional, an aspiring writer, and an assistant editor at Feminist Current. She prefers to write about feminist topics, disability, or environmental issues, but could be persuaded to broaden her horizons in exchange for payment and/or food. In her spare time Jess can be found knitting, gardening, or lying in the fetal position, mulling over political theory that no one in their right mind cares about.