Wallaceburg’s Henrie Timmers is passionate about bringing sexual assault awareness into the spotlight, and out of the darkness.
This was his motivation for starting a local “No One Asks For It” event to kick start Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the Purple Shirt Campaign.
“I discovered the wear purple (campaign) had started at Waterloo at the University based on two comments. One by a police officer and one by a judge. The police officer at the university said to girls that rape would be less likely if they stopped dressing like sluts. A judge in Alberta gave a man, who was convicted of rape, house arrest because in his opinion, based on all the evidence the woman was kind of asking for it,” Timmers said.
“We have this event and I try to make it as big and loud as possible so that people will stop and think about this because we are going to have over 2,000 sexual assaults in Chatham-Kent this year.”
A big problem is people say “I don’t want to talk about this.
“Well (2,000 sexual assaults) that’s pretty well 2% of the population in Chatham-Kent… that’s scary.”
The second annual event is happening tonight (Friday, May 1) from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Clubhouse at Baldoon.
Admission is free if you are wearing purple, otherwise it is $5.
There will be coffee, tea, water, desserts and $800 worth of donated prizes up for grabs.
Timmers said Const. Randi Hull of the Chatham-Kent Police Service is set to speak for about 20 minutes about the new cyber threats especially for kids.
“This is like a brand new target audience and stalkers are just living on this. The figures on that are pretty scary.”
Glenda Johnson from the Chatham-Kent Sexual Assault Crisis Centre will also be speaking.
Timmers said there is still a lot of work to do to raise awareness.
“You know, nobody is asking for it, but nobody is telling the men they can’t take. We have to be able to get people to speak up. We are trying to get this feel free to speak up, speak out. People don’t want to talk about it. They don’t realize how close to home this is.”
Timmers said sexual assault is defined differently by every country.
“The UK has a really good one, it is all encompassing. If anything penetrates anything and you said no, it’s rape. If you say no or you are not of age or in condition to say no, that’s sexual assault, that’s rape. We are just trying to get this so that people understand it.”
Timmers said a lot of fundraisers have been done for the Sexual Assault Crisis Centres, “but nobody talks about it afterwards.
Sexual assault, we just don’t talk about it. We have had so many in Wallaceburg alone that people should be sitting up and saying, please tell me more. What can I do to prevent this?”
Timmers teaches a free women’s self defense course in Wallaceburg as well.
“My program specifically is how to prevent. We need to teach people how to walk smart, how to avoid dangerous situations. It’s all about awareness and to try and get people to see that yes, this is happening.”
