The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Pa ge 6 T hu rs da y, Ju ne 1 8, 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a Not too long ago I read a post on a Facebook page that is for people in Georgetown or people who grew up here. The post was about a Halton Hills worker yelling homophobic com- ments at two young men. As someone who has lived in this beautiful town all my life reading something like this made me so an- gry. I couldn't believe that this Halton Hills worker did this. After this story was posted on Facebook Councillor Moya Johnson posted about the same incident and I have to say that I am really proud of the way that this was handled. Moya stated that she was posting for the mayor. I think that everyone in George- town should know that we do not discriminate against people and it is not okay for people to yell homo- phobic slurs in this town. The Independent & Free Press is published Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Independent & Free Press is a member of the Ontario Press Coun- cil, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981. The Independent & Free Press Sex assault study needs a look Letters to the editor 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: Chris Vernon (cvernon@metroland.com) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifieds/Real Estate Kristie Pells (realestate@theifp.ca) Classified Call Centre 1-855-415-8237 classified@theifp.ca Accounting 1-866-773-6575 Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox by signing up for our twice weekly electronic newsletter. Go to www.theifp.ca and click on 'Newsletter sign-up' at the bottom of the homepage. Mr. Chong not a yes man Our town is not homophobic Victims should never be considered responsible in any way for the crimes to which they're subjected. That's why many people will recoil against the sug- gestion sexual assaults can be reduced by training potential victims to avoid them. However, evidence gathered by researchers at the University of Guelph and two other Canadian univer- sities makes a compelling case that training young women on how to guard themselves against sexual assault can, in fact, make them safer. Hundreds of first-year female students at the schools received intensive training on how to reduce their risk of rape -- particularly so-called "acquain- tance rape." In a 12-hour program, they were shown how to forcefully shut down unwanted advances and to do such things as to keep doors open when in a room with a male. They also received self-defence training. Meanwhile, another group of first-year female stu- dents were offered only brochure-type education on this material. Then, a year later, both groups were sur- veyed as to whether they had experienced rape, other sexual assault or attempts to commit these offences against them in the intervening period. The results offered statistically significant evidence that the better-trained women were far more unlikely to be victims of rape or attempted rape. The jarring study, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, has led to suggestions that this type of teaching should be rolled out much more widely and even be considered as an addition to secondary school curriculum. Given the heat over developing and delivering updated sex-education that's now brewing in Ontario, such a measure could be a challenging one to bring about. But politicians and policy-makers should pay atten- tion to this research. The Ontario government has already signalled it is serious about addressing sexual assault in this province. Expanding the program used in this university research might be a different direc- tion than the province's public education campaign. After all, the recently launched, provocative, pro- vincial campaign has its focus urging bystanders to step in to prevent rape, and renounce rape culture as well. That's a more comfortable thing to digest: Putting the onus on individuals, other than just potential vic- tims, to take more responsibility. These are definitely strategies worth following. However, the university research results can't and shouldn't be ignored. Re: Rick Hall's letter regarding MP Michael Chong. Rick Hall (Just following orders won't do Mr. Chong) is obviously unaware of the Reform Act which Michael Chong brought to Parlia- ment as a private members' bill. The Reform Act is a federal bill designed to re-balance power in the House of Commons and strengthen our democracy. It strives to make our MPs and political parties more representa- tive, responsible and accountable to Canadians. Hopefully this will be passed by the Senate this week. Far from being a 'yes man' Mr. Chong has not been afraid to dis- agree with the Prime Minister on a number of occasions. Gloria Wilson, Acton OPINION In this town we accept people, no matter what they look like or who they love. This is Georgetown, we love our people and I think our people should know that. I feel that everyone in the com- munity should know just how much our mayor and towns people care. Samantha McGowen, Georgetown Letters must include the author's name, address and daytime phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/or length. Pub- lication is not guaranteed. Email: cvernon@metroland. com Mail or drop off: Indepen- dent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 77, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. Letters policy