CORNWALL, Ontario – According to the Cornwall Community Police Service (CCPS), there were 91 Sexual Assault charges laid in the City of Cornwall in 2017. As a comparison, 2016 CCPS recorded 71 Sexual Assault charges.
On Nov. 5, MacLean’s published a list of 237 of “Canada’s Most Dangerous Places”. On the MacLean’s list, Cornwall ranks 64 out of 237 for All Crime, but when it comes to Sexual Assault, Cornwall ranks third, behind Thompson, MN and Kenora, ON and area.
This is in fact a slight improvement compared to MacLean’s last “Canada’s Most Dangerous Places” which was published in 2010 and at that time Cornwall was ranked number one nationally for Sexual Assault.
For 2019, MacLean’s actually marks Cornwall as having had 95 Sexual Assaults in 2017, which equals a Sexual Assault rate of 198.93 per 100,000 of the population; the Canadian national average is 56.56 per 100,000 of the population.
Stephanie McRae, Communications Coordinator with CCPS, attributed the difference between the CCPS’ Sexual Assault numbers and those in MacLean’s to the fact that MacLean’s used statistics from Statistics Canada’s Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, which does not account for changes to cases that may have occurred after the data was submitted.
McRae explained that CCPS has initiatives in place to help combat Sexual Assault.
“The Cornwall Community Police Service maintains a Sexual Assault and Child Abuse (SACA) Unit mandated to investigate allegations of sexual assault against all members of our community,” she wrote in an email to Seaway News. “Officers within the unit also have specialized training in the investigation of sexual abuse against children.”
Furthermore, CCPS is a part of Operation Northern Light, which is an initiative involving nearly 50 other police organizations dedicated to fighting sex trafficking.
Sexual Assault and Support Services (SASS) of Cornwall, SD&G and Akwesasne say that they have also seen an increase in recent years.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in our numbers as well,” said SASS Director Angela Vinet.
Vinet explained that to cope they have had to hire new councillors and are getting close to implementing a waitlist for the first time, something which Vinet wishes to avoid by having more group sessions.
Vinet clarified however, that usually they see more historical cases, rather than the immediate aftermath of a crime, like CCPS sees. Lately, she says that cases that come to SASS are becoming more recent.
She explained that it was hard to pinpoint why rates of Sexual Assault were unusually high in Cornwall.
“It (Sexual Assault) perpetuates in cycles,” she said. “Those who have grown up in abuse can grow up to be abusers.”
