Healing Comes In Waves

In this Healing Comes in Waves episode, we talk to lawyer Gillian Hnatiw and feminist academic Mandi Gray about accessing the criminal and civil legal system. Reporting to the police and going through the legal system is one of many options survivors can choose from. This episode is an opportunity to learn more about the legal process and decide what works for you. Remember: whatever choice you make, it’s your decision.

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CONTENT NOTE:

There are no descriptions of sexual violence in this podcast series. In this episode, there is a discussion of navigating the legal system from the perspective of a lawyer and a survivor. This can bring up big feelings and be hard to hear. Listen in a way that feels safer for you. You get to choose.

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NEED SUPPORT?

If you have been affected by sexual violence or other forms of gender-based violence, you are not alone. There are resources like sexual assault support centres in your community that you can reach out to. Check out our resources page to learn more: https://healingcomesinwaves.ca/resources

If you are a Toronto Metropolitan University community member, please connect with Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education: https://www.torontomu.ca/sexual-violence/

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KEEP CONNECTED TO HEALING COMES IN WAVES

Check out our website for transcripts, resources, and episode guides that include articles, supports and activities to explore attending to the impacts of trauma: www.healingcomesinwaves.ca

Follow us on Instagram: @healingcomesinwavespodcast

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MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Gillian Hnatiw is a feminist lawyer practicing in Toronto. She is an expert in gender-based violence, and her law firm, Gillian Hnatiw & Co., specializes in claims arising from sexual, physical and psychological abuse, harassment and assault, as well as from the non-consensual taking and sharing of intimate images. Gillian strives to empower her clients through various legal and restorative processes and to center their personal needs and goals. Gillian is the former Chair of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), a non-profit legal organization which works to advance gender equality through litigation, law reform and public education. She regularly speaks at conferences and seminars on a wide range of topics. Gillian is frequently sought out by industry and mainstream media for comment on sexual violence, professional regulation and accountability, diversity and gender equality issues.

Dr. Mandi Gray is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary. She recently finished a book titled Liar Lawsuits: Sexual Violence and Defamation Law in Canada that will be released in 2023. Mandi has been a community-based advocate working with women and girls involved in the legal system since 2008. Her experience as a sexual assault complainant and activist shape her academic research. Connect with her on Twitter @gotmysassypants or on her website www.mandigray.com

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CREDITS:

Created by Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support Education at Toronto Metropolitan University in Collaboration with the Consent Action Team. Podcast produced by Vocal Fry Studios. Graphic Design by Isabel Jordan.

In this episode, we explore with advocate Glen Canning how parents can support their children when they disclose, the impacts of intergenerational trauma, check our own internal biases and discuss ways we can attend to our needs as child sexual abuse survivors. Glen is a survivor of child sexual abuse and the father of the late Rehtaeh Parsons. Rehtaeh was a powerhouse young woman who fought for a better world. She died by suicide on April 4th, 2013, following months of cyber abuse and victim blaming connected to the sexual violence she was subjected to.

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CONTENT NOTE:

There are no descriptions of sexual violence in this podcast series. In this episode, there is a discussion of the impact of child sexual abuse, suicide and sexual assault. This can bring up big feelings and be hard to hear. Listen in a way that feels safer for you. You get to choose.

______________________________

NEED SUPPORT?

If you have been affected by sexual violence or other forms of gender-based violence, you are not alone. There are resources like sexual assault support centres in your community that you can reach out to. Check out our resources page to learn more: https://healingcomesinwaves.ca/resources

If you are a Toronto Metropolitan University community member, please connect with Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education: https://www.torontomu.ca/sexual-violence/

______________________________

KEEP CONNECTED TO HEALING COMES IN WAVES

Check out our website for transcripts, resources, and episode guides that include articles, supports and activities to explore attending to the impacts of trauma: www.healingcomesinwaves.ca

Follow us on Instagram: @healingcomesinwavespodcast

______________________________

MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST

Glen Canning is an advocate for victims of sexual assault. He is the father of Rehtaeh Anne Parsons, a Nova Scotia teenager who four males sexually assaulted at a home near Halifax in November 2011. Rehtaeh ended her life on April 4th, 2013, following months of cyber abuse and victim blaming. Glen has spoken about Rehtaeh’s case internationally and across Canada. Along with his daughter’s mother, Leah Parsons, he has helped bring about changes to the Criminal Code of Canada. Glen and Leah, along with Amanda Todd’s mother, Carol, for his work, received the Rosalind Prober Award for Advocacy in 2013 and was named one of Huffington Post Canada’s Top 50 Contributors. Learn more about Glen Canning and his work at his website: www.glencanning.com.

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CREDITS:

Created by Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support Education at Toronto Metropolitan University in Collaboration with the Consent Action Team. Podcast produced by Vocal Fry Studios. Graphic Design by Isabel Jordan.

Sometimes, the first person we need to tell that we were sexually assaulted is ourselves. Too often, we can convince ourselves that it wasn’t “so bad,” that we can “handle it” or that it was somehow our fault. All of these are not true. In this Healing Comes in Waves episode, we are talking to Chenthoori Malankov-Milton, Jaye Garcia and Eternity Martis about understanding what it means to be a survivor and how that is different for everybody.

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CONTENT NOTE:

Although there are no descriptions of sexual violence in this podcast series, any conversation about the topic can bring up big feelings and be hard to hear. Listen in a way that feels safer for you. You get to choose.

______________________________

NEED SUPPORT?

If you have been affected by sexual violence or other forms of gender-based violence, you are not alone. There are resources like sexual assault support centres in your community that you can reach out to. Check out our resources page to learn more: https://healingcomesinwaves.ca/resources

If you are a Toronto Metropolitan University community member, please connect with Consent Comes First, the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education: https://www.torontomu.ca/sexual-violence/

______________________________

KEEP CONNECTED TO HEALING COMES IN WAVES

Check out our website for transcripts, resources, and episode guides that include articles, supports and activities to explore attending to the impacts of trauma: www.healingcomesinwaves.ca

Follow us on Instagram: @healingcomesinwavespodcast

______________________________

MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Chenthoori Malankov-Milton (she/her) is a daughter of the Thamil Diaspora. She is a grassroots gender justice advocate. She lives, works, and plays as a guest on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat Peoples. Chenthoori is a Social Worker who incorporates a transformative healing justice framework and is committed to cultivating a better world for all marginalized communities. She enjoys spending time with her two pups in her spare time, practising yoga and smashing the patriarchy.

Jaye Garcia (they/them) is a fat, queer, gender non-binary, racialized person of colour with hidden disabilities, born and raised by Latinx refugee immigrants in Amiskwaciywaskahikan ("Beaver Hill House" in Cree; AKA Edmonton, AB). Jaye is eager to continue their journey as a settler-guest, living, (un)learning, and growing in Tkaronto. Presently, Jaye works at ACT, an AIDS Service Organization (ASO) in Toronto, coordinating programming for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PHA), those 'at-risk' and those in solidarity whose livelihoods persist despite ongoing neglect by the state. The year is 2022, and Jaye remains unapologetically fat, femme and fierce.

Eternity Martis is an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Toronto Metropolitan University. She is also an award-winning journalist and editor whose work on race and gender has been featured in VICE, Chatelaine, Maclean’s, Flare, Salon, CBC, Hazlitt, The Walrus and many more. Her bestselling, award-winning memoir They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing Up, about being a woman of colour at a predominantly white university, won the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Non-Fiction and was named a “Best Book of 2020” by the Globe and Mail, Chapters/Indigo, Audible and Apple. Her writing has helped newsrooms, including The Review of Journalism, Xtra, the Toronto Star, and tvo.org change their style guides to capitalize “Black” and “Indigenous,” and her writing has been taught on academic syllabuses at North American and Caribbean universities. Following a petition by journalism graduates at X University for more diverse courses in light of the murder of George Floyd, Eternity developed and teaches “Reporting On Race: Black Communities and the Media” at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism, the first course of its kind in Canada.

Keneisha Charles (they/them) is an organizer and artist who strives to dream and co-create liberation through all they do. As a fat, Black, queer, nonbinary, autistic, second-generation Caribbean, intersectionality is at the heart of their praxis. Their community work centres around Black liberation, collective care, environmental justice, disability justice, queer-trans liberation, and gender equity. As a poet, storyteller, and musician, they’re also passionate about the role of art in revolution. Their present work wit...