Professors Vanessa Blais-Tremblay, from the Department of Music, and Joëlle Bissonnette, from the Department of Management, unveiled on December 3 a study report on sexual violence (VACS) in the field of culture in Quebec.
Titled “3,2,1… Action! A concerted approach to combating VACS in culture in Quebec”, this document is the result of their research work and analysis of the discussions that took place during the Summit on sexual violence and harassment in culture, held at UQAM in September 2023 in collaboration with Adisq and the Association of Professionals in the Humor Industry (APIH).
“Summit participants shared their observations on VACS in their sector, which provided an overview of the prevalence, types of VACS, factors that appear to increase the risks, their impacts on the cultural environment and the solutions that have been imagined to deal with them,” underlines Vanessa Blais-Tremblay.
The report presents the thoughts and possible solutions discussed during this working day, in addition to the results of research carried out by a team of UQAM students led by Vanessa Blais-Tremblay and Joëlle Bissonnette. , in collaboration with doctoral student in sociology Sophie-Anne Morency and master’s candidate in sexology Raphaël Jacques. “The idea was to combine the results of studies carried out all over the world with the observations of experts in their sector who participated in the Summit, with the aim of proposing avenues of action,” explains Vanessa Blais. -Tremblay.
Alarming findings
The first part of the report consists of an inventory. Vanessa Blais-Tremblay recalls that according to the most recent data, 56% of women in all professions in the French-speaking Canadian music industry believe they have suffered sexual harassment in a work context. “In a pan-Canadian study of the performing arts, film and television industries, 82% reported having been the subject of sexual harassment, a statistic that increases to 88% for trans and ethnic people. the plurality of genders, she emphasizes. In addition to people who work in culture, the public is also heavily affected. More than one in two respondents report having already been the victim of sexual harassment or assault at a festival in Montreal.”
In comparison, 8% of people questioned as part of a study of 22,000 workers from different backgrounds say they have experienced harassment or cyberharassment at work in the previous year, including sexual, psychological and discriminatory. Across Canada, 13% of women reported being sexually assaulted in a workplace at some point, and 3% of men.
“I want to be very clear,” insists Vanessa Blais-Tremblay. All these figures are staggering. Each time is one time too many, and these statistics suggest that the situation would be worse in cultivation than elsewhere. And this, she adds, even if recent years have seen a sharp rise in the media coverage of VACS situations, Quebec artistic circles having found themselves at the heart of a major social discussion, particularly with the waves #MeToo from 2017 and 2020.
Indeed, according to the studies consulted, the Quebec cultural environment reveals an alarming presence of VACS. For the people who participated in the Summit, VACS are part of “everyday life,” explains Joëlle Bissonnette. “This brings together a set of inappropriate actions, most often sneaky, insidious and recurring, which persist over time and which are too often normalized, even though they constitute violent actions,” she explains.
All types of VACS are present in culture in Quebec, continues the professor, including sexual assault, VACS between intimate partners and VACS within power relations.
The people most at risk of experiencing VACS are those who come from minoritized cultural communities, particularly racialized, indigenous, and those who have disabilities, visible/audible or otherwise, specifies the report. “The alarming nature of this data is, however, not reflected in the structures for handling and reporting VACS, which remain unsuitable for the particularities of cultural and capacity diversity,” underlines Vanessa Blais-Tremblay.
Summit participants also emphasized that VACS witnesses do not intervene, or very little, and that it is not the culture of the area to denounce. “According to the studies consulted, between 43% and 92% of people working in the cultural industries indicate having witnessed an incident of sexual harassment at work, but only 5% of sexual assaults perpetrated are reported, which clearly illustrates the preponderance of non-denunciation among victims than the absence of intervention among witnesses,” analyzes Joëlle Bissonnette. The researchers explain the lack of intervention by the fact that witnesses have difficulty identifying VACS, the definition of which is not necessarily well defined, but also that they do not know if it is their responsibility to denounce.
Action paths
The second part of the report presents more than a hundred avenues for action. They are grouped under seven potential areas of intervention: taking a position, preventing, supporting, speaking out, intervening, memorializing and developing, evaluating and pooling knowledge. “These courses of action present a series of initiatives that a person or organization could choose to implement, depending on their field of action, with the objective of creating working, learning and leisure climates. more harmonious in culture in Quebec,” explains Vanessa Blais-Tremblay.
The notion of consultation between people is implicit throughout the report. It underlines the importance that the fight against VACS be guided by people who have been victims of VACS, and by the management of cultural organizations, but also that it promotes and validates the participation of men and people of the sexual diversity and gender plurality. “As one participant at the Summit said: “We will succeed in getting something going when there are not just a few Courageuses””, illustrates Vanessa Blais-Tremblay.
A few days before the trials which are to be launched by nine women who have initiated a new series of civil proceedings against Gilbert Rozon, has the judicial system changed in response to the major cultural changes taking place in Quebec society? Vanessa Blais-Tremblay wonders.
“Our research has demonstrated that the legal system is far from being the only arena in which the fight against VACS in culture must be waged,” she observes. The cultural sector is particularly well positioned to play a key role in the fight for a society free of VACS. Thanks to its ability to create and disseminate quality works that make you think and dream, the cultural sector can truly constitute the standard bearer in the fight against VACS in Quebec,” she concludes.
