We couldn't develop our anonymous supporting mechanism without Ottawa police support, because there is a lot of stuff around privacy legislation, for example. Now there is an MOU between the police and OC Transpo security. They have to share information that they get with each other, and share intelligence on anything related to transit, which is a big win.
For those who have lived in Ottawa for a while, last year or the year before, we had a serial perpetrator who was on the loose for 18 months who sexually assaulted a number of women. The Ottawa police's response was very much the archaic stuff that Maïra talked about: travel in pairs, don't go outside at night.
We, as an organization that doesn't get funding, could speak politically. We came out very strongly and said, “You're telling Canadian women that they need a curfew and a chaperone, and that's not appropriate.” They, in turn, had a meeting with us and changed the way in which they report on sexual violence, the way they issue press releases, and the way they communicate. They did what we told them, which was that if they got his description out there, they were more likely to find him, and in fact that's what happened.
That was based on a relationship that we've had and continue to maintain with Ottawa police, OC Transpo, and us, as three organizations.