Consent Week

Consent Week is an opportunity for the Queen's community to come together to talk about consent, relationships, sexuality, prevention, and the role each of us can play in creating a safer and more caring campus.

Consent Week began as a national initiative to raise awareness about sexual violence and the importance of consent. At Queen's, we use the week not only to talk about what consent is, but to think more broadly about the cultures, systems, attitudes, and inequalities that shape people's experiences of sexuality, relationships, safety, and harm.

Sexual violence does not happen in isolation. Experiences of harm are shaped by intersecting forms of power and inequality, including racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism, and other forms of marginalization. Meaningful prevention therefore takes all of us. It means recognizing harmful behaviours and norms, challenging them when we encounter them, supporting people who experience harm, and creating environments where respect, autonomy, communication, and accountability are expected.

Consent is also about more than preventing harm. It is part of creating relationships and experiences grounded in choice, communication, pleasure, respect, curiosity, and care.

Consent Week is a cross-campus effort because creating a culture of consent cannot belong to any one office, service, student group, or individual. Through events, conversations, education, and community activities, we invite everyone at Queen's to consider how we can contribute to a campus where consent is understood, practiced, supported, and valued.

#QueensConsentCulture