Spate of assaults beset Ontario campuses

TIM SHUFELT

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

September 5, 2007 at 4:54 AM EDT

On Monday night, in separate incidents, three female students were groped while walking on a trail near Laurentian University in Sudbury, but managed to escape without injury. Local police are looking for a man in his 40s or 50s.

The university put up posters alerting students to the incident, and are promoting safety programs available at Laurentian, where sexual assaults are rare, said Tom Zsolnay, executive director of university advancement.

"We still are confident we are in a safe place. You're probably more likely to meet a wild animal on that trail than an aggressor," Mr. Zsolnay said.

She was working alone in a chemistry lab just after midnight on Saturday when she was beaten unconscious, tied up and sexually assaulted. Police are investigating tips and reviewing footage from security cameras.

"I think a lot of young women are really quite nervous," said Shelley Melanson, president of the Carleton University Students' Association. "We've gone out of our way to make sure there are extra safety precautions at all of our events during orientation."

Those precautions include making sure students leave events in groups of three, providing taxi chits and driving services to students living off campus, and broadcasting information over the campus radio station.

Carleton's campus security has also added extra officers for orientation-week activities and is conducting presentations on personal safety.

Posters describing the suspect as a bald, white man in his 20s are plastered all over campus.

But the school's director of safety said Carleton is still one of the safest campuses in the country, and there is no need for students to panic.

"I don't think it's fair to say we might have a violent sexual predator on our campus. This is a random act of violence that we can't say was perpetrated by anybody on the campus," Len Boudreault said.

The incidents at Laurentian also appeared to be random, as the victims did not know their attackers, which is not usually the case.

In the vast majority of sexual assaults, up to 90 per cent according to Mr. Boudreault, the perpetrator is at least acquainted with the victim.

Reported incidents usually involve two students, said Nicky Brighid, a sexual-assault counsellor at the University of British Columbia. Drinking is often a factor, she added, whether through drink spiking or alcohol-facilitated assaults and date rapes.

Ms. Brighid said younger students with little experience with alcohol may be particularly vulnerable.

"It's always a factor when you're young and you go out into the world for the first time and you're incredibly excited," she said. "You're not necessarily well armed in protecting yourself."