TORONTO — The Ontario government's campaign to stop sexual violence and harassment has launched a new ad aimed at insidious behaviours that the premier said not everyone realizes are wrong.
The theme of the spot is that if it's not OK to do, it's not OK to say.
A man on public transit says he loves a crowded bus because it "makes it easier for me to grope you." A female student says she will "spread rumours about your sexuality all over school." A man behind a desk says, "Grab those files up there. I want to look up your skirt." A man puts a car into park and says, "It's that part of the night where you repay me for dinner."
It follows the successful launch of the "It's Never Okay" campaign earlier this year. The original ad was aimed at bystanders, depicting situations of sexual harassment and assault and telling viewers that doing nothing helps the perpetrators. It garnered more than 2.5 million views on YouTube and the government says the message has reached 85 million people worldwide with the help of the hashtag #ItsNeverOkay.
Government-commissioned research found that from just before the ad was released in March to September the percentage of Ontarians who believe they have an obligation to intervene when witnessing sexual harassment has increased from 37 to 58 per cent.
Premier Kathleen Wynne said the research found there are still people, predominantly young men, who have trouble identifying sexual violence and harassment. This new ad is aimed at that group.
But she found the general increase in awareness encouraging.
"I said to my staff, 'Imagine if we can actually make a difference on this,'" Wynne said Thursday in Toronto at Ontario's first Summit on Sexual Violence and Harassment.
"Those stats show me that we may actually be able to make a difference and that young kids growing up may actually have a different understanding of how they should be relating to each other and how to treat each other with decency."
The research conducted by Ipsos Reid found that two-thirds of Ontarians had seen the first ad and made them rethink if they had witnessed sexual harassment or an assault and stood by.
But it also found that many believe there are "grey areas." One in three people don't always believe that if someone sends along nude pictures of someone they know to a friend, it constitutes sexual violence or assault, the research suggested.
Roughly the same number of people said they believed spreading rumours about someone's sexuality constituted harassment. Six in 10 people reported they would intervene if they witnessed a man touching an intoxicated woman, Ipsos said.
The initial online survey of 1,313 Ontarians over age 18 was conducted in March and the followup survey of 1,500 people was conducted in September.
