Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest is doing its part to protect partygoers from unwanted sexual behavior on festival grounds.
As part of its newly-introduced “NO MEANS NEIN!” campaign, an online portal was added to the KW Oktoberfest website allowing victims to report uninvited sexual encounters. The initiative is also part of a partnership with the REES Community platform.
“[These instances] can range from harassment, catcalling that might occur on the street, to things like a sexual assault,” REES Community founder Mary Lobson told CTV News.
The service is fully anonymous. Victims have the option of providing as much information as they’re comfortable with, describing where, when and what happened.
All of the reports go back to festival staff.
“It will give us good information so that we can use that in our strategies moving forward to help keep the festival even safer than it already has been,” explained Tracy Van Kalsbeek, KW Oktoberfest’s executive director.
Van Kalsbeek doesn’t remember receiving complaints of …