Canadian Federation of Students wary of Liberal threat over campus sex assault
OTTAWA — The largest organization for post-secondary students in Canada is not quite ready to get behind a Liberal threat to consider withdrawing federal funding from universities and colleges that are not serious enough about dealing with on-campus sexual assault.
The 2018 federal budget tabled this week included $5.5 million over five years to develop a national framework aimed at addressing gender-based violence at universities and colleges across the country, which student groups have welcomed as a show of strong federal leadership.
But the Liberals are dangling that carrot alongside a vaguely defined stick.
The budget said that beginning in 2019, the federal government will consider holding back funding from those institutions that are not putting “best practices addressing sexual assaults on campus” into place.