Quebec recently cancelled a survey investigating sexual violence on CEGEP and higher education campuses. This cancellation sets a damaging precedent for future policies on sexual violence and student protection, as well as for the salience of institutional accountability, creating a less regulated and more dangerous campus environment. Without data evidencing the frequency and severity of this crisis, it becomes invisible, and institutions can get away with ignoring it.

In Canada, one in three women above the age of 15 report to have experienced sexual assault at least once. This prevalence is reflected acutely on Quebec campuses, where 14 per cent of all reports and complaints to the Quebec ombudsman are related to sexual violence. The need for stronger protections and data-driven policies is vital. Yet, the government has removed a key mechanism for understanding and addressing campus sexual violence. How can an issue be addressed when those in power don’t consider it significant enough to research?

Without the survey, there is no longer a direct, survivor-centred means to monitor sexual violence and available safety measures on Quebec campuses. The Quebec government has justified this cancellation as a cost-saving measure. However, survivors pay the real price. The absence of data does not suggest the absence of violence. It only means that survivors are left unsupported and without a system willing to acknowledge their experiences. Thus, students will continue to face sexual violence with fewer protections and less institutional support. Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry stated that a broader provincial mental health survey will incorporate data about sexual violence, but merging a specific issue into a general study risks diluting critical insights and overlooking key patterns. Without a dedicated survey, the true scope of the crisis may be misrepresented or ignored entirely. 

The government is not just neglecting its responsibility; it is deliberately turning its back on a problem that causes profound trauma for thousands of women, and demands urgent and ongoing attention. When the government fails, it is up to institutions to step up, take initiative, and ensure that student safety is not sacrificed for bureaucratic convenience. A campus without proper reporting mechanisms does not protect students; it protects perpetrators. Silence does not create safety but guarantees invisibility.

This invisibility is not distributed equally. 2SLGBTQIA+ students, students with disabilities, international students, racialized students, and women already experience sexual violence on campus at disproportionately high rates. The cancellation of this survey makes the severity of their realities even easier to erase. By cutting research funding, the government merely shifts the burden onto underfunded and understaffed organizations like the Office for Sexual Violence, Response, Support, and Education (OSVRSE), leaving it to them to fill the gaps while struggling with limited resources. 

Higher education campuses are not responsible for Quebec’s failure, but in the face of the cancellation of this survey, they have an important choice: Follow the Quebec government’s pattern of neglect or take real, independent action. If the province refuses to track sexual violence, institutions themselves must. McGill must acknowledge that safety does not start with response but with prevention. A commitment to student safety is a choice that must be reflected in action, policy, and transparency.

The government’s decision to erase data instead of addressing sexual violence is not just an oversight. Though there are still a number of alternative forms of data collection in regards to sexual violence, they are not as tailored to Quebec’s school campuses in particular as the cancelled survey was, and thus hold less weight in institutional protections of sexual violence on campuses. Sexual violence is still happening, and will only intensify if the importance of sexual violence data is forgotten. The loss of data makes it difficult to assess whether the measures Quebec has taken to improve campus safety are working, and whose stories of sexual violence are going unheard.