Thank you.
What we need to recognize is that when it comes to stalking, we are where sexual violence was 30 years ago. We don't even have a “Stalking101” understanding of what this looks like in Canada. When I use the term “criminal harassment”, Canadians look at me and say, “What?” They don't even know that's the legal term for it. A general 101 knowledge about what stalking is, what it looks like, how it's a problem and what we can do about it is lacking.
In January, I started the Canadian Anti-Stalking Association because we have never had a single organization in Canada dedicated to stalking—not one. We have shelters, which is great. We have sexual assault centres, which is fantastic. However, there's nowhere to go if you're a victim of stalking. People are going to Google to figure out whether this is even a crime and who they can talk to about it.
We are at that first step of needing to use all resources at our disposal to educate the public on what this looks like in person and certainly in the encroaching reality of online harassment as well.