More Prominent Ontario Women Coming Forward

[Tropicana]

This isn't quite the fit for the Bill Cosby thread but between his story in the US media and the Jian story in Canada, more and more prominent women are coming forward about rape experiences.

Ontario New Democrat MPP Cheri DiNovo says she was the victim of sexual assault on two separate occasions.DiNovo, a United Church of Canada minister who has represented the Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park since 2006, shared the revelations in an interview with Maclean's reporter Genna Buck, published online Tuesday.
The MPP said both assaults happened in her 20s and were not reported to the police.
DiNovo said the first incident involved an ex-boyfriend who chased her around the house after she said she did not want to have sex.
"I wouldn’t say he was violent exactly, but it was violence without having bruises. Finally, I just kind of succumbed," she said. "It was rape. There was no question about it. I didn’t tell anybody. I walked away and life went on. I'm a Baby Boomer, and I think for my generation it was just a common thing."
The second incident involved a stranger holding a knife to her neck in an alleyway and fondling her.
"So I've experienced both the 'stranger danger' version and the 'best friend' version of sexual assault," she told Maclean's.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/02/cheri-dinovo-ontario-ndp-sexual-assault_n_6255612.html

I understand why women wouldn't want to go public with this but I am surprised that so many women are not reporting this to police or telling anyone about it. Re: the boyfriend, I wonder if she kept dating him. If she kept dating him and having sex with him, hard to cry rape afterwards. If she broke up with him immediately, that's a different story.

[Tropicana]

Here is another one:

Sheila Copps says she was sexually assaulted by fellow politician, raped by someone she knew




Former Liberal cabinet minister Sheila Copps says she was sexually assaulted by a fellow politician when she was a MPP and she was raped by someone she knew and police did nothing.
Copps made the disturbing revelations in a column in the Hill Times, amid allegations of sexual harassment on Parliament Hill. Two Liberal MPs were suspended from caucus last week on charges of “personal misconduct” in relation to the alleged harassment of two female NDP MPs.
Copps, 61, says she was sexually assaulted by a fellow Ontario MPP when she was 28.
“We were both on a Parliamentary tour studying violence against women,” she wrote. “The incident occurred when we exited a hotel elevator after enjoying a group dinner following a day-long session in northern Ontario.

“I pushed back on my assailant, kicking him where it hurts, when he tried to force me up against a wall and kiss me.”

Copps said she never reported the assault, deciding it was a “personal misjudgement” from her colleague.
Copps, who was Liberal MP from 1984 to 2004, also said that she was raped “more than 30 years ago” and went to police. She said that police told her a conviction would be impossible and “merely paid a visit to the culprit warning him to keep his distance.”
The former cabinet minister says that Parliament has a lack of due process for sexual harassment allegations, a complaint also made by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau last week.
“Unlike most workplaces, when harassment or assault does occur on Parliament Hill, aggrieved parties do not have the same access to due process as they would anywhere else,” Copps wrote.
Trudeau was criticized by the NDP for going public with the allegations against MPs Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti, saying the complainants were “victimized a second time.” However, the Liberal leader never said the names of the complainants or even their party affiliation. The NDP MPs reportedly did not wish to pursue the matter beyond their initial complaints.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/10/sheila-copps-says-she-was-sexually-assaulted-by-fellow-politician-raped-by-someone-she-knew/

I believe these stories but I am surprised that such prominent women would not have confided in someone or reported it.

Why are these incidents not being reported?

[Tropicana]

The Jamaican context:

ALTHOUGH a number of Jamaican men still smirk at the idea of a woman raping a man, the increasing number of calls to the Marge Roper Counselling Service and the National Family Planning Board hotline are showing that more and more males are reporting rape and are pointing towards older women as the perpetrators.
"A number of men are now reporting rape," National Family Planning Board Chair Dr Sandra Knight said. "Men who are in the 16 to 20 age groups are reporting rape, men in the 30 to 35 age group are reporting now that older women are raping them.
This is nothing new. Older women have always been having sex with our boys. But I think now, with the sensitisation that is out there, boys are now realising that if I did not consent to it, it is rape," she said.
But some men still say that this cannot be true.
"You cannot rape the willing," said Curtis Benjamin, 42, and father of three. "I don't think it is physically possible for a woman to overpower a man and rape him. What she can do is seduce him and he will get aroused. Then he is not going to walk away he will give in to her. So that is why he now becomes willing. Once you are willing it is not rape."
Ricardo Thomas, 40, shared the view.
"I feel it cannot happen, because if a man really doesn't want to have sex a man will just not have sex," Thomas said. "If another man comes to you as a man to rape you, you are going to fight him off tooth and nail, so if you don't want to have sex with a woman it should be the same thing, you going to fight her off tooth and nail too. What I would call him is a reluctant participant in some respect, but I wouldn't consider it rape," he added. "I would only consider it rape if a bunch of women hold you down and use dildo, etc. But as a man, if I don't want sex, I just don't want it, and if as the woman you decide to force me even further then she would leave with a bloody nose and a black eye, even though I don't believe in hitting women," he went on.
However, Dr Knight said that male rape should be taken seriously.
"I know a lot of people find the issue of male rape funny; because they think that men want to have sex all the time, and all men will have sex with anything and anybody, but that is not true," she said. "Men can be very discerning, men can be conservative with their sexuality and we should not generalise and feel that you getting some and you don't want it. But we shouldn't generalise because not all men are like that. Actually men can be very serious with their sexual preferences and their sexual interactions."
While there is the issue of older women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s having sex with younger men, Dr Knight said that there is also a problem with teenage girls forcing teenage boys into sexual activities, while adolescent males are also being raped or sexually abused by adult females.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Jamaican-women-raping-young-boys---officials_17846556

Good that they are reporting it.

[My Looh]

I always thought women kept quiet because they would have to prove that they were not consentual and also their past sexual behaviour could be dug up.

Is that still the case?

[Tropicana]

Likely yes.

[Tropicana]

This doesn't seem like chit chat to me but I can't find blu's thread.

Okay this was in breaking news:

Lawyer Gloria Allred has urged US comedian Bill Cosby to waive the statute of limitations to allow women alleging he sexually abused them to "obtain justice".Ms Allred spoke at a press conference alongside three women who said they had been abused by Mr Cosby.
Mr Cosby, 77, is facing a series of renewed allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted over a dozen women.
His lawyers describe the claims as "discredited" and "defamatory".
Mr Cosby has had television shows cancelled and some appearances dropped in recent weeks amid the allegations.
'Lost count'Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Ms Allred said many of the alleged victims had contacted her to determine what legal rights they had.
"Unfortunately, I had to tell them it was too late for them to file a lawsuit against Bill Cosby because of the statute of limitations - for most women it is simply too late to have their day in court," she told reporters.
The women's rights lawyer presented two courses of action to, in her words, "determine whether Bill Cosby is a saint or a sexual predator".

Here is the deal....

1. ALL these women couldn't be making it up.

2. He should not waive his legal rights and stand trial. Legal rights are there for a purpose.

3. Women need to learn to speak up right away not 20 or 30 years later. The "I am afraid my sexual past will be brought up" argument doesn't fly with me. Hello: Make better choices then you won't have anything to regret later.

4. The statute of limitations laws are clearly flawed and needs to be re-visited. Why was it put in place? Whose interests does it serve? They need to be scrapped or completely overhauled.

What is the statute of limitations on rape anyway?