An Ontario woman who regularly shared her experiences as a sexual assault survivor at police training courses says she’s ending her relationship with the Ontario Police College and is raising concerns about what she and several experts say are harmful biases among some officers and a lack of accountability from the college.
It comes after she received anonymous comments from two officers last year that she says left her feeling “mortified” and “humiliated.”
For several years, she has volunteered her time by speaking at training organized by the college for sexual assault investigators. CBC News is protecting her identify because she is a sexual assault survivor.
Experts say the comments, which include calling her “damaged,” accusing her of being too critical of police and presuming a mental illness diagnosis, are not only hurtful but also show a concerning bias that could affect the integrity of sexual assault investigations.
The woman wants to know if those officers are working as sexual assault investigators, but more than four months after taking her concerns to the college, she still has no answers.
“I felt dismissed, I felt judged. I felt absolute anger and I wanted somebody to be accountable,” the woman said.
Experts say the comments left by Ontario police officers after a training course reflect harmful biases that can affect sexual assault investigations.
Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General is responsible for the Ontario Police College (OPC).
In an email to CBC News, ministry spokesperson Brent Ross said the college is “following up directly with the survivor to address the situation.”
He did not answer questions about whether the officers in question are investigating sexual assaults or how the woman’s complaint has been handled so far.
Sharing her story to help others
In 2004, the woman reported to police that she was sexually assaulted by a priest. Police laid eight criminal charges against the accused, including sexual assault and forcible confinement, and issued a Canadawide warrant for his arrest. However, he was never tried because he had left the country.
Two decades later, sharing her story still isn’t easy. But when she was asked to speak at an Ontario Police College (OPC) training course a few years ago, she agreed to do so with the hope that it could help give officers a better understanding about the experience of sexual assault survivors, including how difficult it can be to recount traumatic events in interviews with police.
“I’ve always believed that people need to hear the voice of somebody who’s been sexually assaulted because it’s not the same if somebody’s telling our stories,” she said.
Since 2022, she’s travelled throughout the province, speaking 20 times as part of a 10-day specialized training course, which is mandatory for any officers who investigate sexual assaults.
During that time, she said, she consistently received positive feedback and had a good relationship with the college.
That all changed following anonymous comments written by two police officers last year.
Following the course, participants submit anonymous feedback, which is shared with all instructors as well as with volunteer presenters such as the woman CBC News interviewed.
In the feedback following a session in January 2025, one officer wrote that the woman “is far too damaged to be presenting her story and each time she tells it she is revictimizing herself,” writing as well that her presentation was “far too blaming on the police,” and adding “I don’t believe she has taken the initiative to ‘want’ to improve herself.”
Following a session in March, there was another comment, from a different officer, which also said her presentation was “quite negative towards police” and that the woman “should see a psychologist for her obvious PTSD.”
“It’s like those officers missed the whole point of the talk,” the woman said.
“They missed the point of, you know, being trauma-informed. They missed the point of seeing the sexual assault survivor [or] victim for who they are, not who they think they should be. They missed the part of not making judgments, of not carrying their bias into the situation. They missed the point of, you know, proper language.”
Stereotypes, biases affect policing: experts
The January course was held in Whitby and the March course was held in Windsor.
However, the courses could include officers from different police forces, so it’s not clear where the officers who wrote those comments might be based. The Ministry of the Solicitor General, which is responsible for the police college, won’t say. It’s also not clear if the officers who wrote the comments passed the course.
The woman worries they could be assigned to investigate sexual assaults and said she worries for the well-being of survivors they might interview.
“This kind of situation would make me not come and report my sexual assault. If I knew that that officer could be sitting across from me making those judgments, I wouldn’t go and report,” she said.
That’s a very real concern, said Sunny Marriner, a prominent Canadian advocate and expert whose work focuses on experiences of sexual assault survivors with the criminal justice system and other institutional systems. She has been called regularly as an expert witness on the impact of police bias on sexual assault investigations.
Marriner said the comments are not only upsetting for the presenter but also reflect biases rooted in common stereotypes such as viewing a survivor as “damaged,” which can affect the outcome of sexual assault investigations and compromise access to justice.
“Those are sometimes root causes of why investigations go sideways because those beliefs are influencing the officer’s ability to hear what’s being told to them, to identify appropriate and useful evidence,” Marriner said.
Elaine Craig, a law professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax who researches sexual assault law, agrees the impact of the biases reflected in such comments can be “massive.”
“It can result in cases that are improperly determined to be unfounded, which means that they don’t proceed and that charges aren’t laid when they should be,” Craig said.
According to Statistics Canada, between 2015 and 2019, 36 per cent of sexual assaults that were reported to police resulted in charges being laid, of which 61 per cent proceeded to court.
Sexual assaults are also vastly underreported. Statistics Canada data indicates only six per cent of victims report the crime to police.
Calls for accountability unanswered
The woman contacted OPC director Paul Hebert in August to express her concerns about the comments.
“At minimum, I expect an apology and for these officers to be removed from their role as sexual assault investigators,” she wrote.
Hebert responded to acknowledge receipt of her email and wrote that he would review “relevant information” before responding to her concerns.
More than four months later, she has heard nothing more from the college and Hebert has not responded to her concerns.
CBC News emailed Hebert to request an interview. The Ministry of the Solicitor General, which is responsible for the police college, declined an interview on his behalf.
CBC News also sent a series of questions to the ministry, including what steps have been taken since receiving the complaint in August, if the officers who wrote the comments have been identified and if they are working in Ontario communities as sexual assault investigators. Those questions went unanswered.
Ross, the ministry spokesperson, wrote in an email that the ministry and the college “recognize the profound courage it takes for survivors of sexual violence to share their stories and the importance of creating a space that is safe to do so,” and added that the college is following up with the survivor.
CBC News also contacted Durham Regional Police and Windsor Police, which hosted the training sessions. They directed us back to the OPC.
The lack of response from the OPC undermines public trust in policing, says Danielle McNabb, an assistant professor of political science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., whose work focuses on policing and police oversight.
“They are serving the community. The community deserves to know what response is there here. Is there a response? Is there discipline? Is there going to be further training? These are questions that remain unanswered and they’re questions that we deserve answers about,” McNabb said.
McNabb said the college’s lack of response reflects broader systemic issues in policing, and what’s known as the “blue wall of silence,” referring to the tendency for officers and institutions to protect one another even in the face of dishonourable conduct.
Marriner, meanwhile, said an important opportunity was missed when the comments made it “very plain” to see that certain officers had not absorbed the training and were not ready to work as sexual assault investigators.
She said the college should have taken the opportunity to reassess if those officers are well-suited to such a role, to provide additional training, and, importantly, to be transparent about that procedure and those remedial steps.
“Instead, it appears to have just landed in silence.”
The woman said if she were ever to share her story again, it would have to be with an organization that understands victimization and trauma. After her experience with the comments and how her complaint was handled, she doesn’t believe her relationship with the police college can be repaired.
