I am informed that the member for Ottawa–Vanier has a point of order.

It is now time for oral questions.

To reply for the government, the Minister of Education.

I appreciated the member’s reference to some of the data that has been collected in the student surveys, and in particular, the very disturbing data from Western University about the prevalence of students’ experiences of sexual violence. Western University has been taking exemplary measures to deal with that data and other issues at the institution. That includes university-wide mandatory training. That is the kind of holistic investment in prevention and education that would really make a difference for students in our institutions in this province.

I’d like to ask the member, why did the government not include measures like campus-wide education and training for all students, staff and faculty?

Thank you to the member for her comments. I listened to this last portion; I listened to all your comments. This last portion—actually, let me start off by saying that it sounds like, in general, there’s an agreement that obviously more needs to be done. It’s a challenging area. I think all people would say—certainly myself and everyone on this side of the government—that any one incident of sexual violence is one too many. So we want to get to zero.

When you reference, though, that more needs to be done and, you know, “Where’s the investments?”—you made the comment about investments that would get us to no incidents. What types of investments would you suggest would actually create zero incidents in the post-secondary education sector?

Thank you to the member for that question. Quite frankly, as many investments as are needed to create a safe climate, a safe condition for students to thrive in school without having to fear violence, without having to fear bodily harm, without having to fear psychological harm at the hands of perpetrators.

Specifically, as I said earlier, this government is sitting on $44 billion. That’s a pretty big shortfall that includes billions of dollars that should be going to post-secondary education, to our education sector, to our health care sector, to children, community and social services. All of these, as far as I’m aware, are impacted or are somehow related to supporting victims of violence. Whether you’re supporting the children, supporting the parents, supporting the students, you don’t support them by cutting billions of dollars to the very sectors that will support survivors of violence.

I thank the member from Oshawa and the members opposite. We’ve worked together a lot on the human trafficking file and raising that awareness in our own communities, as well as provincially. It’s something that needs to keep going, and there’s never too much awareness.

I want to shout out to the Minister of Education, who changed the actual curriculum in the elementary schools so that there is more awareness at a very young age about learning, about the Internet, about the appropriateness of relationships. That is only one piece that our government has brought forward. We say, “No tolerance”—and we realize that education is absolutely key. The member from Oshawa is absolutely right—education at all levels. I salute the Ministry of Education for changing that curriculum. And this is an ongoing situation in which we will continue the education.

You’re right. The Minister of Colleges and Universities was also the Associate Minister of Women’s Issues, and she did a great deal of work on human trafficking there and getting that education out and getting supports out. She has now brought in a piece of legislation which has been consulted for months with stakeholders. Everybody wants to do this. It’s a matter of it getting out there. Where are the vulnerabilities to tighten up? The Minister of Colleges and Universities has seen that on the faculty and the student side, that there has to be legislation brought in. So the minister has done the consultations. We see a tightening up with people in a position of power being staff and vulnerable people being students, and how we close that loophole. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

As we all know, education components evolve with professions. So although I can’t answer the question directly on what is happening in the colleges right now, I know in many professions there are ongoing education modules that I encourage everyone to take, and there are certain mandates. I believe probably some of that is going on as we speak, in those professions. Raising the awareness like this legislation also empowers those—we’re talking colleges and universities right now—to increase that education and awareness.

For sure, I think Bill 26, if passed, would put an end to the secrecy around faculty-student sexual violence. We’ve seen, in medical reports in recent years, uses of non-disclosure agreements to prevent students from seeking legal recourse against the offender, and the ability for faculty and staff to move from one school to another without facing any punishment or outright dismissal. It’s far too common in post-secondary education, as the statistics that we do have show.

In many cases, collective agreements allow offenders to receive greater protections and rights than survivors of sexual violence. If passed, this would give institutions a greater power to discipline and dismiss offenders and empower students to come forward with evidence of sexual violence.