New funding to help victims of sexual assault

The Alberta government announced a million dollars’ worth of funding to help victims of sexual assault in our province. The new forensic evidence collection training program will ensure that healthcare providers have access to providing sexual assault training kits to victims in rural areas. Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk, the Alberta Associate Minister of Status of Women, provided some important stats on how women are dealing with sexual assaults in our province.

“Often, victims of sexual assault in rural and remote Alberta need to travel significant distances to access these services. Sexual violence crimes have the lowest reporting rate amongst violent crimes in Canada. It is estimated that only six per cent of these crimes are ever reported to the police. At the same time, these crimes have a remarkably low conviction rate of just 0.3 per cent.”

According to Stats Canada the rate of reported sexual assaults in Alberta jumped 21 per cent in 2021. The organization also said the rate of police-reported sexual assaults in Canada has reached its highest since 1996.