Community Reform Efforts

Victoria, British Columbia

The members of the Victoria team are:

  • Stephanie Capyk, Manager of Client Services – Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre
  • Catherine Charlton, Victim Services Worker – Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre
  • Janet Calnan, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner – Vancouver Island Health Authority
  • Christine Lowe, Deputy Regional Crown Counsel – Ministry of Attorney General
  • Catherine Murray, Crown Counsel – Ministry of the Attorney General
  • Constable Sue Law – Victoria Police Department
  • Ruth Cottingham, Detective – Central Saanich Police Department
  • Ross Poulton, Staff Sergeant – Saanich Police Department
  • S/Sgt. Ray Carfantan – Westshore RCMP Major Crimes Unit
  • Detective Tim Henderson – Oak Bay Police
  • Karen Wickham, Victim Services Worker – Victoria Women's Sexual Assault Centre
  • Staff Sergeant Ian Lawson – RCMP Westshore
  • Corporal Charlene Beck – RCMP Vancouver Island
  • Constable Beth Chipperfield – RCMP West Shore
  • Det. Ondine Easson - Central Saanich Police Department
  • Det./Sgt. Todd Wellman - Victoria Police Department

The Victoria team is a regional team providing services to the City of Victoria, Esquimalt, and the communities of Oak Bay, Saanich, Central Saanich, North Saanich, Colwood, Langford, Sooke, and Metchosin. The area is served by the Victoria Military Police, Oak Bay, Saanich, and Central Saanich Police Departments, and the RCMP. The Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre’s service region extends to Port Renfrew and Shawnigan Lake to the west, and includes the Gulf Islands (Saltspring, Pender, Mayne and Saturna Islands).


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Whitehorse, Yukon

The Whitehorse team provides sexual assault support, investigative, and prosecution services to the entire Yukon Territory. Due to significant turnover in staff, the team is focused on rebuilding efforts, and the development of integrated service protocols.

The members of the team are:

  • Cst. Kelly MacQuarrie
  • John Phelps – Justice Canada
  • Craig Dempsey – Victim Services/Family Violence Prevention
  • Jennifer Drover, Constable – RCMP
  • Andrew Hyde – Adult Probation
  • Dr. Sally McDonald, Medical ServicesVal Pike – Whitehorse General Hospital
  • Dr. Anne Williams
  • Penny Rawlings – Whitehorse General Hospital
  • Jennifer Allen – Victim Services/Violence Prevention
  • Barb McInerney, Kaushee’s Place – Yukon Women’s Transition House
  • Ms Val Pike – Whitehorse General Hospital
  • Ms Leah White, Manager – Yukon Government Victim Services

Edmonton, Alberta

The members of the SANE Committee (Sexual Assault Network of Edmonton) are:

  • Avril Herron, Crown Prosecutor – Alberta Justice
  • S/Sgt. Deg Jolly – Edmonton Police Service
  • Kathleen Soltys, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner – Capital Health Authority
  • Director Kris Fowler - University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre
  • Dorthe Flauer – Strathcona County Sexual Assault Centre
  • Karen Smith, Executive Director – Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton
  • Dr. Cathy Carter Snell, Director – Mount Royal College Forensics Program
  • Supt. Danielle Campbell - Edmonton Police Service

Team Activities:

The most significant recent development for the Edmonton team is the now routine collection of urine from recent sexual assault victims by the sexual assault nurse examiners. Prior to this summer, urine samples were taken only when the police determined it was necessary. Now the police, the Crowns and the nurses are in agreement that routinely including a urine sample with all of the other samples collected may help to identify more drug facilitated sexual assaults. Other issues that continue are sexual exploitation and human trafficking, and mass sexualized trauma experienced by survivors of Indian Residential Schools and War Rape.


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Calgary, Alberta

Members of the Calgary Team are:

  • Annemarie Tocher, Executive Director – Alberta Association of Sexual Assault Centres
  • Lloyd Robertson, Crown Prosecutor – Crown Prosecutors Office
  • Ann Harding, Manager – Family Community Resource Centre, SANE Coordinator
  • Deb Tomlinson, Project Manager - Calgary Collaborative Services Centre
  • Curtis Olson, Staff Sergeant – Calgary Police Service
  • Caroline Hatcher – Calgary Health Region
  • Heather Battle, Alberta Health Services, Clinical Program Director – Calgary SART
  • Gordon Haight, Alberta Justice – Crown prosecutor
  • Ann Harding, Alberta Health Services, Manager – Calgary SART
  • Dr. Pauline Head, Alberta Health Services – Medical Doctor
  • Jenny Ofrim, Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA) – Police & Court Support/Education
  • Cpl Kim Pasloske, RCMP – Calgary GIS
  • Insp. Guy Slater, Calgary Police Service – Inspector, Major Crimes

Team Activities:

The Calgary Sexual Assault Response Team provides services to survivors of sexual assault and sexual abuse in Calgary and surrounding areas. Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, the Calgary Police Service, Alberta Health Services and the Crown Prosecutor’s office are committed to working together to achieve a coordinated, collaborative first response to victims of sexual assault which has resulted in the development of the Calgary Collaborative Services Centre (CCSC). Since opening in September of 2008, the Calgary Collaborative Services Centre has enhanced access to a seamless continuum of essential services such as crisis response, emergency shelter, early intervention and prevention, outreach support following crisis, medical/forensic exams, police investigations, police and court support and legal resources to survivors both sexual assault/abuse and domestic violence/abuse.

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Niagara Region, Ontario

The mandate of the Niagara Region Sexual Assault Response Team is The Betterment of Services for Victims. Using what we believe to be a best practices approach and model we are committed to providing better services to survivors of sexual violence. In the beginning we learned a lot about each of our organizations, how we worked, what our philosophies were, our objectives and goals and we discovered that we had things in common and that we all wanted the same thing.

Working together enables us to:

  1. Be consistent – we have identified that each of us has different responsibilities in sexual assault cases with our individual roles determined by our organizations. Having this understanding of our individual roles has allowed us to enter into each and every case with a specific purpose that provides consistency in carrying out the duties associated with responding to a sexual assault.
  2. Offer comprehensive service and care – This has allowed us to enhance every area of response. By working together as a team – we are better able to continually improve on our individual roles and to more quickly and effectively respond to identified gaps in service provision.
  3. Provide a knowledgeable response – We not only have become experts in our individual roles, but this relationship allows each of us to use each other as resources. The sharing of information and experience along with problem solving discussions enhances the knowledge base we work from.

Team members are:

  • Kim Regehr, Case Manager – Niagara Region Sexual Assault Centre
  • Paul Bevan, Detective Sergeant Sexual Assault – DNA Units, Niagara Regional Police Service
  • Karen Whaley, Coordinator – Victim Witness Assistance Program, Ministry of Attorney General
  • Stacey Sheehan, Crown Attorney – Ministry of Attorney General
  • Mary Essar, Coordinator – Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centre, Niagara Health System
  • Lucie O’Neil, Crime Analyst – Niagara Regional Police Service
  • Cheri Huys, Volunteer Coordinator – Niagara Region Sexual Assault Centre
  • Ruth Pretty, Executive Director – Niagara Victim Crisis Referral and Support Service
  • Elaine Cybula, Coordinator – Niagara Health Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Program


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Halifax-Antigonish, Nova Scotia

The Halifax-Antigonish team is comprised of two teams who are working jointly wherever possible to meet Making a Difference objectives. This joint team has been working for the past two years to develop sexual assault service model. They report that coordination has dramatically improved results, and that because all team members were so intimately involved in the development of the model, everyone takes ownership and pride in the outcomes.

Team members are:

  • Lucille Harper, Executive Director – Antigonish Womens Resource Centre
  • Ronald MacDonald, Senior Crown Prosecutor – Public Prosecution Service
  • Maureen Shebib – St. Francis Xavier University
  • Angela Connors, Program Manager – Provincial Community Sexual Offender Program
  • Penny Hart, Detective – Halifax Regional Police
  • Janice Tompkins, Corporal – RCMP
  • Barb Saunders, Staff Sergeant – Halifax Regional Police
  • Denise Smith, Chief Crown Attorney
  • Irene Smith, Executive Director – Avalon Sexual Assault Centre
  • Jackie Stevens, Legal Education Project and Training Coordinator – Avalon Sexual Assault Centre
  • Susan Wilson, SANE Coordinator – Halifax Region
  • Ms Angela Fougere, Coordinator, SANE, – Antigonish Women's Resource Centre

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Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

This team is responsible for providing services to Prince Edward Island.

Members are:

  • Evelyn Marshall, Victim Services Worker – Office of the Attorney General
  • Anne O’Shaughnessy, Constable – Summerside Police Services
  • David O’Brien, Senior Crown Attorney – Office of the Attorney General
  • Joe Peters, Corporal – Summerside Police Services
  • Jean Profit, Victim Services Worker – Office of the Attorney General
  • Sergeant Mike Murphy – RCMP L Division
  • Elaine Rabinowitz – PEI Community Mental Health
  • Constable Betty Rice – East Prince RCMP
  • Sigrid Rolfe – PEI Rape & Sexual Assault Centre
  • Mary Lou White – Family Ties, Child and Family Services
  • Cory Woodford – Community Mental Health
  • Francis Kateri – Child and Family Services
  • Mike Avery
  • Paula Finkle – Probation Services
  • Randall Fletcher – Office of the Attorney General
  • Jamie Germaine – Prince St. School
  • Donna Langille – Community Legal Information Association
  • Colleen MacDonald – Social Services and Seniors
  • Susan Maynard – Victim Services
  • Dr. Wendy Verhoek-Oftedahl - Family Violence Prevention & Community Development Coordinator
  • Dina Desroches - Victim Services

Team Activities:

Our team has just completed the third in a series of four booklets to aid persons affected by child sexual abuse. The new booklet, entitled "What Happens Now: A booklet for offenders charged with a sexual offence involving a child," should be ready for release December 2009. The two other booklets in the series are "What Happens Now: A booklet to help children who have been sexually abused" and "What Happens Now: A booklet to help families of children who have been sexually abused." The fourth booklet in the series will be for families of offenders.

Our team will be hosting a 1 ½ day Child Sexual Abuse Conference for professionals May 6-7, 2010 on PEI. Featured speakers are Dr. Roberta Sinclair, Director of Research and Development for the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Centre in Ottawa, Dr. Sophie Yohani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta, and Dr. Cathy Carter-Snell, Coordinator of the Forensic Studies Program and Instructor in the Advanced Studies in Critical Care Nursing Emergency Program at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Topics will include:

  • the latest developments in the identification and prevention of online child exploitation,
  • sexual abuse issues in immigrant communities,
  • risk factors for injury and PTDS, and
  • best practices in forensic assessment.

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