Rally targets sexual abuse

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

29 October 2007

Posted By Trevor Pritchard

Mehroon Kassam sincerely believes those who showed up for her weekend rally will have taken away more than just a free hotdog and a cup of hot chocolate.

"They're going to take away an awareness that sexual abuse can be prevented," said Kassam, who helped organize Sunday's first annual Speak Out Loud for Prevention event on Pitt Street.

"If there's something that can be achieved from this, it's raising that consciousness."

Drawn in by the aroma of hotdogs on the grill and the music pumping from loudspeakers, dozens of people filed their way past the Sunday afternoon rally, held in the green space near Cornwall Square.

People were encouraged to yell their ideas of how to prevent abuse into a decibel meter - a proposition, said Kassam, that was much more attractive to kids than to their parents.

Organizers handed out pamphlets to those who strolled by. Some who stopped browsed books aimed at teaching children how to know the difference, in Kassam's words, between a "good touch" and a "bad touch."

Scheduled at the end of Child Abuse Awareness Month, the rally was the brainchild of Pr‚vAction - a community group bound by the goal of promoting healing and reconciliation after decades of sexual abuse in the Cornwall area.

"We don't talk about it (sexual abuse) enough," said Kassam, a Pr‚vAction member and the project leader of the city's social planning council. "And the more you have something like this, the more you will talk about it. And in the end it will lead to change." The idea, said Kassam, came from a similar rally held two years ago in downtown Toronto - one she learned about while serving as the director of the local Children's Aid Society.

Aside from one man who called the music "noise pollution," most of those who braved the cool Sunday afternoon weather had positive reactions, she said.

Cornwall mom Brigitte Fournier let her nine-year-old daughter, Katia, yell into the decibel meter about how adults should "stop hurting kids."

"There are a lot of children being abused out there," she said. "And nothing's being done with it."

The event had originally been planned for Saturday afternoon, until a barrage of rainshowers forced a one-day postponement.

Even with better weather Sunday, there were still a few glitches - most notably a blown fuse in the speaker system that sent organizers scrambling to the nearest Canadian Tire.

Despite all that, the turnout was still impressive, said Pr‚vAction member Jamie Marsolais.

For Marsolais - an abuse victim turned community activist - the fact people were receptive to their public event is proof Cornwall citizens are interested in bringing the issue of childhood sexual abuse out into the open.

"It shows that people really care," said Marsolais. "If people didn't come, I'd feel like I'd gone through it and tried to make a difference all for nothing."

Since Pr‚vAction itself only formed a few months ago, the group had only a couple of weeks to plan Sunday's rally.

Next year's event will be bigger, promised Kassam, who said she'd like to have a celebrity like hockey commentator Don Cherry take part.

The members of Pr‚vAction are also planning a winter carnival which would coincide with the new provincial holiday announced for February.

While pamphlets and demonstrations are important in raising awareness about sexual abuse, one of the most powerful tools can simply be providing families a reason to get together and socialize, said Kassam.

And given the number of people living below the poverty line in Cornwall, it's important to create events that are free to the public, she said.

"(Sunday's rally) was something to build on," said Kassam.

"We have to start from somewhere."