An Open Letter to Our Community and Province:
In Support of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres’ #JusticeOnTrial Campaign
June 22, 2026
We are writing on behalf of the Woman Abuse Working Group (WAWG) in Hamilton, Ontario.
WAWG is a coalition of more than twenty agencies in Hamilton working to end violence against women. We are led by Violence Against Women (VAW) women’s organizations, working with community and government agencies, survivors and community members, who are committed to the eradication of violence against women and their children.
Today, we join the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres in supporting the #JusticeOnTrial
campaign.
We do so as a community that has been profoundly affected by recent events.
The Jeffrey Sloka case was one of the largest sexual assault prosecutions in Waterloo region’s history. Survivors waited years for the matter to proceed through the courts. When the verdict was delivered, many survivors, advocates, and community members across the province were left grappling with difficult questions about justice, accountability, and trust.
At the same time, Lydia’s Law – a proposal championed by survivors from our community – sought to improve transparency around how sexual assault cases move through Ontario’s justice system. Its defeat added to a growing conversation about survivors and the public not receiving the information and accountability they deserve.
These conversations are not new. For decades, survivors, advocates, researchers, and community organizations have raised concerns about barriers to reporting, delays, case attrition, rape myths, gender bias, and the experiences of survivors within the justice system. Despite ongoing efforts to improve responses to sexual violence, many survivors continue to question whether the system is meeting their needs.
As leaders working in the gender-based violence sector, we know these concerns deserve serious attention. Survivors deserve a justice system that is transparent, accountable, trauma-informed, and responsive to the realities of sexual violence.
We also know that Black, racialized, Indigenous, disabled, Two-Spirit, gender-diverse, and low-income survivors often face additional barriers when seeking support, protection, and accountability. Their experiences remind us that access to justice is shaped by systemic inequality and discrimination.
Public confidence is strengthened when institutions are willing to examine challenges openly, listen to those most affected, and pursue meaningful improvement.
We also believe that the voices of survivors and community-based organizations doing gender-based violence work must remain central to these conversations.
The questions being raised through the #JusticeOnTrial campaign matter. They matter to survivors. They matter to communities. And they matter to the future of public confidence in Ontario’s justice system.
As a community that has lived these questions firsthand, we support continued dialogue, transparency, accountability, and action to strengthen survivors’ confidence in the systems intended to serve them.
Justice must not only be carried out but also inspire confidence in those it is meant to protect.
Respectfully,
The Woman Abuse Working Group (WAWG)
Violence Against Women Coordinating Committee of Hamilton