A sexual assault victim is speaking out the day after Toronto mayor’s niece ignited a Twitter firestorm by saying that women should avoiding dressing like whores.
Krista Ford, Mayor Rob Ford's niece and the daughter of Coun. Doug Ford, tweeted on Wednesday: “Stay alert, walk tall, carry mace, take self-defense classes & don't dress like a whore. #DontBeAVictim #StreetSmart.”
The comment came after a police press conference seeking the public’s help after a series of six similar sexual assaults in the Annex and Kensington Market neighbourhoods.
Ford’s tweet struck a nerve with many readers, including Alice Moran, who identified herself as one of the six victims Toronto police spoke about in the press conference.
Moran posted an open letter to Ford on her Facebook account Thursday morning.
“I believe you have a right to your body and regardless of how you do or don’t dress it I believe you have a right to respect and personal security,” Moran wrote.
She also spoke to CTV Toronto’s Ashley Rowe on Thursday afternoon.
“I did write it to Krista Ford, but I more so wrote it to anybody who victimizes victims,” Moran said of her letter. “I think that’s a big problem we have where we blame the victim, as opposed to attacking the root problem, which is that we have people in our city who make it unsafe.”
Moran said she was walking in the Annex on a Saturday night two weeks ago when a man approached her from behind and grabbed her. She spun around, hit him and he ran away.
“It’s still strange walking home now that I know, in my own neighbourhood, just minutes from my house, someone can come and take away my safety,” Moran said. “It’s a terrible, terrible feeling that I don’t want anyone else to have to go through, so I hope we can find these guys.”
Ford eventually apologized for her tweet, taking to her Twitter account Thursday to respond to the criticism.
“I didn’t mean to cause such an alarm and I apologize if I did,” she tweeted. “I just want women to be safe.”
Ford has locked her Twitter account since the controversy ensued.
Moran told CTV Toronto she hopes that her coming forward will help put a face to sexual assault victims.
“I don’t really want to be painted as ‘Alice Moran, sexual assault victim’ but I do think it’s important that we note to people that victims aren’t these unimaginable people that we don’t know,” she said.
Moran also noted in her open letter that she was not dressed provocatively when she was assaulted, but that woman should be free to wear what they choose.
“I guess that’s the key difference in our thinking. You could wear a T-shirt that says ‘I’m literally asking for it’ and I’d still advocate for your security,” Moran wrote.
Moran wrote that she was sexually assaulted while wearing a knee-length polka-dot dress that she sported to Easter dinner, “where I’m fairly certain I could make little to no money whoring.”
The mayor weighed in on his niece’s comments Thursday, during an appearance at the CNE where he was viewing a sculpture of himself carved out of butter.
“It’s a mistake she made. She regrets it. She apologized for it,” Rob Ford told reporters. “She’s very young, right. We were all young and we all did things that we regret when we were younger. She made a mistake. She apologized and we have to move on now.”
Comments made by a Toronto police officer last year also ignited a firestorm after he said women could avoid sexual assaults by not dressing like “sluts.”
The comments sparked “Slutwalk Toronto,” in which protesters swept through the streets wearing whatever they wanted, condemning the notion that suggestive dressing is an invitation to assaults.
Slutwalks were later held throughout Ontario and in the U.S.
All six recent sex assaults in Toronto occurred in July and August and all involved young women in their teens or 20s. In each instance, a woman was walking alone when she was approached from behind and sexually assaulted.
