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Third sexual assault case opened YWCA raises concerns about frequency, type of incidents
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 7, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife has some of the highest rates for sexual assault in the country according to Statistics Canada, but it's the specific type of assaults happening recently that have some worried.
RCMP Cpl. Jason Doucet, left, and Cpl. Barry Ledoux prepare to patrol the McMahon Frame Lake Trail on their quads last Thursday night. One of last week's victims was assaulted early Tuesday morning on the trail near Sombe K'e Park. - Daniel Campbell/NNSL photo |
In the past two weeks, there have been three sexual assaults of a seemingly random nature, taking place in a home on Sissons Court, on McMahon Frame Lake Trail and on Forrest Drive.
Two of the assaults happened on the morning of July 30.
A third assault was reported to police on July 21. Family members taped posters to light-posts along Forrest Drive and posted online asking for help in catching the perpetrator.
The posters states someone's teenage daughter was assaulted while walking home around 2 a.m. near the trail to Tommy Forrest Park on Forrest Drive.
Yellowknife RCMP confirmed an investigation into the assault was re-opened yesterday.
Cpl. Barry Ledoux, RCMP spokesperson, said the case was initially closed because of a lack of evidence, witnesses and suspects.
"We received some information and additional info that will assist us," Ledoux said, although he wouldn't specify exactly what type of information it was or who it came from.
The police have received a number of tips from the public on the two sexual assaults from July 30, but Ledoux said they haven't been able to determine if the assaults are related.
Lyda Fuller, executive director of the Yellowknife YWCA, deals with victims of sexual assaults on a daily basis.
The Yellowknife YWCA runs the only family violence shelter in the city, the Alison McAteer house.
The majority of sexual assaults victims Fuller sees are victims of their own intimate partners, ex-partners or family members.
Fuller, who says she won't go for walks in the evenings anymore because of the recent sexual assaults, said the types occurring on Yellowknife's streets and trails should be treated differently.
"I'm not sure it makes sense to lump them together," Fuller said.
The main reason Fuller is worried about the recent assaults is the potential for violence. She says sexual assaults between intimate partners can be physically and emotionally damaging, but the ones being perpetrated on the public are more often physically dangerous.
"You're not going to get someone on the trail that hurls self-esteem attacks on a stranger," she said. "Those are going to be physical attacks."
Still, Fuller says there are common denominators in all types of sexual assault.
Many of the cases Fuller deals with involve partners or ex-partners who are trying to control the other person's life.
"It's a way to say we can do this to you and there's nothing you can do about it."
Fuller says the problem with the recent assaults is it affects everyone in the city until the perpetrator(s) are apprehended.
"Instead of controlling the behaviour of one person, you're really controlling the behaviours of many people at the community level. "
The YWCA has stepped up security measures in the wake of the assaults, Fuller said.
"We're cautioning staff to be extra careful," she said. "This is front and centre for us right now."
Yellowknife posts some of the most severe crime numbers in the country according to Statistics Canada, with incidents of sexual assault being one of the leading causes for the high numbers.
In 2012, Yellowknife RCMP reported 40 incidents of sexual assault in the city to Statistics Canada. Of the 40 assaults, 28 people were charged.
Calculated per 100,000 population, Yellowknife's sexual assault rate is one of the highest in the country, at almost 200. Other Northern communities posted high rates as well, with Whitehorse near 150 per 100,000 population and Iqaluit at 338.
Toronto police reported 2,789 sexual assaults last year, but owing to the city's larger population, its rate per 100,000 sits just below 50.
Edmonton police reported 1,040 sexual assaults in 2012, its rate adjusted per 100,000 people is 83.
Fuller says that while societal issues in the North may play into Yellowknife's high sexual assault numbers, she wants to stress those engaging in sexual assaults are making a conscious choice to show that kind of aggression.
She wants those convicted of sexual assaults to face
harder sentencing.
"I think it needs to be taken seriously," Fuller said. "When the sentences are light ... well, it's open season."
In March 2012, a 25-year-old Yellowknife man was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman jogging on McMahon Frame Lake Trail.
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