Ontario takes aim at sexual harassment, violence with new video

Premier Kathleen Wynne touts ads designed to get people to step in when they see sexual harassment or violence.

Thestar.com
Nov. 19, 2015
By Rob Ferguson

When it comes to sexual harassment, what’s worse? A woman gossiping about a colleague’s skimpy attire, or a young man ready to cop a feel?

Both get the thumbs-down in a new TV ad as the Ontario government takes another step to raise awareness of harassment and violence - and the need for bystanders to speak up when they see something wrong.

Building on the popular and edgy “#WhoWillYouHelp” campaign unveiled last spring, the 30-second spot begins with a woman saying aloud what she’s thinking while eyeing an office mate: “Hi! I’m going to discuss your skanky outfit with all of our co-workers.”

Another vignette in the ad by Toronto agency Leo Burnett shows a young man on public transit, confiding “I love a crowded bus. It makes it easier for me to grope you.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne introduced the ad, to start airing on TV Monday, at a sexual harassment and violence conference Thursday. The commercial ends with the line “if it’s not OK to say, it’s never OK to do.”

It got good reviews from some of the 700 people in the audience at the conference, held in the Allstream Centre on the CNE grounds.

“That was hard-hitting,” said Bobbi Martin-Haw, manager of women’s health care at the Peterborough Health Centre. “It’s subtle but powerful.”

There’s a reason the new ad leads off with a young woman, Wynne told reporters later.

“The first ad was solely male-on-female harassment, but that’s not the whole story,” she said.

“We wanted to make sure that people get an understanding of the diversity of this kind of sexual assault and violence.”

The ads, including the first one that garnered an astonishing seven million YouTube views, is to help people recognize what types of comments are over the line and intervene when an incident takes place in front of them.

“If your eyes are still shut, open them,” urged Wynne, whose government proposed a law last month forcing employers to take sexual harassment and violence complaints more seriously and create an easier path for victims taking legal action.

That bill could be beefed up when an all-party committee on the issue makes recommendations in the next few weeks.

“The ads are scary and they make people feel uncomfortable,” Wynne added, noting that is the point of the ads, part of a larger $41-million effort launched against sexual harassment and violence earlier this year, including more support services.

Wynne said there has been a “striking” change in attitudes, with a poll by Ipsos Reid showing 58 per cent of people surveyed recently say they feel they have an obligation to intervene, up from 37 per cent last spring.

“People are thinking whether they’ve ever been a bystander, rethinking their role and changing the way they see themselves acting in these situations.”

But there is a demographic that is still not getting the message strongly enough.

The research shows young men are most likely to think guys their age are “just getting carried away sometimes,” Wynne said. “That’s not OK.”

Also of concern are so-called “grey areas” in recognizing what constitutes harassment or violence, such as sending nude pictures of someone they know, sexually touching someone who is drunk or spreading rumours about someone’s sexuality.

The Ipsos Reid poll found 32 per cent of Ontarians surveyed don’t feel it’s assault to forward nude pictures, 28 per cent don’t think it’s wrong to touch a woman who’s had too much to drink and 7 per cent believe it’s never appropriate to spread rumours of someone’s sexuality.

The initial poll was conducted online in March with 1,313 adults and the followup survey contacted 1,500 adults in September.

BY THE NUMBERS

28 per cent of people say they’ve been the target of unwanted sexual advances at work or been subject to “sexually charged” talk on the job.

1 in 3 Canadian women will experience some form of sexual assault, with rates 5 times higher for women under 35.

$8 million budget for the continuing TV ad campaign showing examples of sexual harassment and violence. Ads will air on a wide variety of programs, including sports.

$800,000 for the Ontario government to host the two-day sexual harassment conference, attracting 700 people.