With the Grand Prix a week away there are concerns over women's safety at Montreal festivals after a troubling new poll.
Out of 1,000 women surveyed in the poll mandated by the City of Montreal, more than half said they were victims of harassment or groping at festivals.
“We're talking about being insulted, cat called, people trying to touch you, you're out in the blue with your friends and somebody touches your bum or you feel like someone trying to touch you against your will, so we can say are usual but not normal,” said Dorothy Alexandre of Conseil des Montrealaises, a group mandated to ensure equality between men and woman in the city.
In all, 56 per cent of women who were asked about their experience at Montreal festivals reported being verbally harassed or groped.
That number jumps to 71 per cent when looking at the LGBTQ community; 54 per cent of heterosexual women reported the same.
What some people might brush off, Alexandre said points to a bigger problem.
“We can go out there and say this is another stupid thing, but if that happens to you, it happens to someone else. It can bring that feeling to a big segment of our population,” she said.
The results come as no surprise to Lilla Goldfarb of the YWCA Montreal.
“That's not just at public events, of course the numbers were about public events but we go into schools, we work with girls, even elementary school girls tell us about being groped,” she said.
In 90 per cent of cases of the incidents reported, the aggressor was a stranger.
Goldfarb expects many women don't bother to report harassment because it won't lead to anything.
“I think that's part of the problem, that they're not being taken seriously or it's not that much of a problem or it's too much work to go and look for it,” she said.
The Conseil des Montrealaises suggests special training for security at major events, and an increase in the number of female security guards.
They also recommend having a safe space for women to go to if they are feeling threatened.
