SlutWalk Ottawa returned for its fifth year recently with a new organizer and a strengthened focus on marginalized groups at higher risk of being sexually assaulted.
The annual event aims to end rape culture and victim blaming through speeches and a march that begins at the Human Rights Memorial on Elgin Street.
Kate Forman, a third-year social work student at Carleton University took on leadership of the event after the former organizer Kayla Spagnoli had to back away from the position this year. Spagnoli is a close friend of Forman’s and encouraged them to organize.
(Forman identifies as non-binary and prefers the personal pronouns they and them.)
Forman said she endured sexual abuse at a young age and that SlutWalk’s goals are particularly important to them in part because of this.
“For me, SlutWalk is a really important event that I look forward to every year and I didn’t want to see it go down just because no one was willing to take it on. So I said yes and started moving from there,” Forman said.
Forman chose the speakers for the event in order to prioritize marginalized groups. Three of those chosen were black, two were queer and a group of Sacred Generations Doulas also spoke. Sacred Generations Doulas serve people through important life events and in all aspects of health and sexuality.
“I think my main priority this year is making sure everyone feels included and that everyone has a voice in this march because maybe in the past they haven’t had one,” Forman said prior to the Sept. 18 event.
SlutWalk began in 2011, after a Toronto Police constable was talking to a group of York University students and said: “Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” Since then, the movement has expanded to more than 70 cities including Chicago, Berlin and New Delhi.
This year for SlutWalk Ottawa, there was no available funding for postering and printing.
Karen Joy, who books shows on Tuesday nights at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club Ottawa, organized Sept. 20 night of comedy, spoken word and performances — billed as Slut Talk — to help cover the costs of SlutWalk.
Slut Talk featured all femme talent. Admission to the event cost $10.
“We’ve always been interested in putting together a show that highlights women in comedy and we knew that SlutWalk was looking for a means to help out fundraising targets and what not, so it just seemed like a good fit,” Joy said.
SlutWalk was held at a time when Carleton and other universities across Canada are debating the term “rape culture” and working to create stand-alone sexual violence prevention policies under provincial law. According to the Ottawa Citizen, some school officials from Carleton disagreed on putting the term “rape culture” in the policy and tensions increased after some administrators did not attend a meeting about the policy in early April.
Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, a recent Carleton graduate, has been actively involved in the policy process at Carleton, which she said has been stalled since the summer.
“There’s been issues and conflicts between the labour unions and the student groups who they were consulting with and people on the upper administration side who don’t see eye to eye,” Owusu-Akyeeah said. “And because of this (the administration) stopped the process entirely because it’s just not going their way.”
She also spoke at SlutWalk and outlined her frustration over the situation at Carleton.
Other speakers included Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi, who used slam poetry to talk about rape, privilege and women of colour.
“Women are the glue that holds the world together and allows it to turn,” Moumouni-Tchouassi said, a line that drew cheers from the crowd.
Forman spoke last at the event and delivered a deeply personal speech before the march began. Forman’s speech focused on their history of sexual abuse, the response to their story, and the marginalized groups represented.
“I am not what happened to me,” Forman said. “I am what I make of it.”