Investigations are underway at a January party in London, Ont., Where several women claim to have been drugged and should have been taken to hospital, CBC News has learned.
The home party at Zeta Psi house, located on 116 Mill Street in central London, included an open bar. It was held to celebrate which men would be admitted to the fraternity, with only men from Zeta Psi allowed to attend. Sisterhood women and their friends were also invited.
One woman told the CBC she attended the party and drank four or five drinks.
The woman, who did not want her name used for fear of retaliation, said friends eventually called an ambulance to take her to hospital because she was inconsistent, something she said had never been before. felt when she drank. She also said she did not remember much of the night, but believed a drug had been added to her drink.
“This must be taken seriously,” the woman said. “The only way to stop this kind of behavior and stop it is for the school to put a lot of pressure on these people, because if they are allowed to get away, if they don’t see any consequences, they could potentially do it again.”
The party took place four months after a number of Western University students said they had been drugged during the residency orientation week. This led to a police investigation, a rally of thousands in protest of misogyny and the culture of rape on campus, and calls on the university to come up with ways to help combat gender-based violence and sexual violence.
“Any gender-based and sexual abuse is unfortunate and we will not tolerate it,” Chris Alain, one of Western’s associate vice presidents, told CBC this week.
Alain added that “everyone should play a role in tackling this social problem and preventing this type of violence in general.”
Families and fraternities are not officially affiliated with the university, but their members are exclusively Western students.
“I was really shocked that this happened after the awareness was raised in September,” the woman, who believes she was drugged, told CBC News. “There was a walk, a lot of things on social media that discouraged such behavior, and then it happens again.
WATCH Western students went out last fall to protest misogyny and the alleged culture of rape:
Western University students protest campus culture
Thousands of Western University students left classes on Friday to protest misogyny and the culture of rape and to support survivors of sexual violence on campus. This comes after four women filed formal complaints of sexual assault at the University of London, Ont., And there were allegations of many more assaults. 2:08
While in the hospital, the woman said, a doctor and nurses told her there were other women from the same party and she spoke to at least one other woman who believed she had also been drugged.
According to the woman, doctors at University Hospital, part of the London Center for Health Sciences (LHSC), refused to take a drug test tonight to help her figure out what, if anything, might have been in her drink. Two days they later refused again when she came in to get a doctor’s note for her teachers, she said.
Eventually, the woman called Western student health services. She said her doctor told her to come immediately and examined her urine. The results showed the presence of an opioid, which she said she did not take. CBC News saw the results of the drug test.
The woman reported the incident to London police, who told the CBC she was still investigating.
The Panel Council, which oversees nursing at Western University, is also investigating, but declined to comment.
In a note received from CBC News, the Nursing Council wrote to its sister club members following the party and drug allegations:
“All the presidents of the associations met on this issue and collectively decided to cancel all events with Zeta indefinitely and discourage members from attending any events in their house.”
The Nursing Council added that it takes the incident “very seriously”, believes that “every woman involved” and encourages people to refrain from talking about the incident with others in their sisterhoods or fraternities to avoid gossip.
There was no visible response from the fraternity, said women who spoke to the CBC. Zeta Psi’s motto is “Sorority is tested. The mother is approved.” The Western University branch was established in 1947. The fraternity’s Instagram page shows events and travels that have been happening since January. An April post congratulates the newly ordained members and says, “Welcome to the Jungle Boys.”
Asked about the drug allegations and the fraternity’s response, Tyler Boyswerth, its international chief executive, wrote in an email: “Zeta Psi is aware of the serious allegations and is under investigation. The alleged actions are contrary to the values of the Zeta Psi Brotherhood, Inc. Zeta Psi’s policy is not to provide information about an investigation. ”
Local leaders did not respond to requests for comment.
Another woman, who said she was at the party but did not drink, said she had witnessed several women who fell ill and were taken away by friends. The woman, who also does not want her name used for fear of retaliation, said members of the Zeta Psi fraternity marched along with women calling for an end to sexual violence in September.
“They just feed on culture,” she said. “You support the victims in the community, but you don’t say anything when the accusations involve your fraternity.” I would be disappointed and embarrassed to carry my letters from the fraternity, knowing that these are people with whom you should make lifelong friendships. ”
“Incredibly debilitating”
annalize Trudell runs the educational programs at Western University that were set up after the September allegations.
Trudell works for Anova, a London-based organization that works to prevent gender-based violence.
The history of the January party is “disappointing” and it is disappointing that the woman and others were not tested for drugs at the university hospital, Trudel said of the allegations.
“Although in this particular circumstance she was not sexually assaulted, we would qualify this as a form of sexual violence because she was directed because of her gender and something happened to her against her consent and her will.
A woman whose identity CBC News does not use because she fears retaliation says she believes she was drugged at a fraternity party in London, Ont., In January. (Kate Dubinski / CBC)
“The effect of this is very similar in many ways, as it feels incredibly debilitating. It feels like a violation – something was done to your body that you didn’t know about, and now you’re trying to recover and understand the different parts, how they align and how you move forward to make your body feel like it’s back. yours. ”
Before being discharged from the hospital the next morning, the woman, who believes she was drugged, said the hospital told her she could contact the specialized regional center for sexual and domestic violence at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “To get tested for sexual abuse and a drug test. However, the woman said she did not contact the hospital center immediately because she did not believe she was sexually abused.
She said she returned to the university hospital two days later for a doctor’s note for her teachers and asked for a drug test again, but was again refused. When she called St. Joseph, she said she had been told that if she wanted a drug test, she would have to undergo a sexual assault test and commit to going to court, which she did not want to do.
This information is wrong, said Cassandra Fisher, coordinator of the Center for Sexual Assault at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“We are here 24/7 and we provide options to people and they can choose how they want to move forward,” Fisher said. “If someone doesn’t know if they have been sexually assaulted, we give them options because we want them to know that this is a place where they can come and we can give them community resources.
Drug testing is being done if necessary to help doctors and nurses understand how to care for a patient in the emergency department, said Dr. Christie MacDonald, the city’s chief of emergency medicine for the LHSC. There are 700 drugs that can be used for drug-related sexual abuse, and there is no single test for all of them, she added.
However, this case, involving more than one woman in the emergency department at the same time, will be used as a training tool for the future, she added.
“From my point of view, a case like this is a good reminder to our employees that we are considering additional tests. If there is an opportunity to use a test, we must do it. We wouldn’t test for 700 different aspects, but we can choose two or three to test. This is something I will review with our staff. “
Accountability is needed
The woman, who told the CBC she believed she had been drugged, said she did not think there would be criminal charges because it was impossible to say who might be responsible.
Jennifer Quaid, a lawyer with experience in the field of sexual violence, said the case would be difficult to prosecute in the criminal justice system.
“In the end, you have to point a finger at someone. Who should be responsible for what happened there? We must stop thinking that criminal law can fix everything that happens. We need to think about why this situation was created in the first place. The conversation to be held is: “What preventive measures can be taken?”
Trudel agrees.
“I think it would be incredibly difficult to use the criminal justice system as a form of appeal here, but I don’t think that’s the only way to do that,” Quaid said. “Something is playing …
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