Ontario's Sexual Violence Action Plan

Ontario is delivering on its commitment to protect women from all forms of sexual violence through Ontario's Sexual Violence Action Plan.

The four-year strategy includes $15 million in funding toward education, prevention, training and awareness programs and supports to help make Ontario a safer place for women and their families.

The Sexual Violence Action Plan follows province-wide consultations with more than 350 survivors, service providers and other experts in the community, health, education and justice sectors. It builds on the progress made under Ontario's Domestic Violence Action Plan, launched in 2004.

Highlights of Ontario's Sexual Violence Action Plan

Raising public awareness to prevent sexual violence, which includes:

• Implementing public education initiatives across the province to promote understanding and prevention of sexual violence and to foster more responsive and supportive environments for survivors.
• Educating post-secondary students, faculty and administrators on how to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
• Supporting an international forum on sexual safety for older women.

Improving services for victims of sexual violence, which include:

• Increasing support to Ontario's 41 sexual assault centres to help them better respond to women in their communities.
•  Expanding the Language Interpreter Services Program to support survivors of sexual violence.
•  Training front-line service providers and professionals in community, health, education, and justice sectors to provide supports that are responsive to the needs of women who experience sexual violence.
•  Supporting initiatives to develop and implement standards of care for victims of sexual assault in hospitals across the province.
•  Working with Aboriginal partners and organizations to identify initiatives that support Aboriginal women who are victims of sexual violence.
•  Improving policies, programs and services to better address the unique needs of francophone women.
• Fighting human trafficking, including sexual exploitation, through a multi-pronged approach. This includes initiatives to help prevent victimization, enforce human trafficking laws, vigorously prosecute alleged offenders and ensure victims have the supports and services they need to begin the healing process.

Strengthening the criminal justice response by:

Updating sexual assault investigation guidelines to help police conduct effective investigations and better support victims.

Training Crown Counsel, police and other justice personnel to conduct more effective sexual assault investigations and prosecutions.

Seeking an amendment to the Criminal Code to make it an offence to distribute intimate visual recordings of a person without that person's consent.