As I was leaving Oromocto on Friday I noticed two ladies at one corner of a busy turning circle holding signs. I had just enough time to catch the print on one. It read “5 men, 1 woman, 0 charges”. My curiosity was piqued so I pulled into the nearby parking lot and had a chat with the ladies.

The lady pictured above is Jenn. Jenn lives in New Maryland and is a mother and a cub scout volunteer. Jenn was assaulted by three Oromocto RCMP officers and two hospital security staff while at the Oromocto hospital. Within the space of a minute she was thrown to the ground and had all of her clothes stripped off. Since then she’s been trying to have the incident investigated, all to no avail. She says she’s never even been asked to give a formal statement about the issue.

Her friend carries a sign covered in pamplets about coping with abuse and sexual assault. “These are useless for her” she says “until someone finally does an investigation. They just want to pretend nothing happened.”

I know there are two sides to every story and I’ve only heard one, but unless she had a bomb strapped to her chest I cannot think of any legitamate reason why five men would have to strip a woman. She’s not asking for charges or penalties for those who are involved, just an investigation. As I was leaving a car honked and a young man leaned out an open window and yelled “woohoo” at the ladies with his fist pumping the air.

I thought about being in a situation like that. Being in a situation of abuse brought on my an authority like the RCMP, and how hopeless it must feel to want some recognition that it even happened. I thought about how much strength it must have taken for Jenn to be there that day. I told Jenn I would post this on my blog and twitter even though my readership is small at least a few local people follow it. You can help Jenn too, by retweeting this or sharing the link. Maybe if it gets enough attention something can be done.

Rate this topic:

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...