LONDON, Ont. — On Monday afternoon, the London Police Service held a news conference to provide an update on their investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving five members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team.
The news conference garnered headlines as police chief Thai Truong opened his statements by delivering a direct apology to the alleged victim.
But roughly 30 minutes into the news conference, Truong stopped the line of questioning from reporters to deliver a personal statement about what he felt was a root cause of sexual violence.
“There is a widespread prevalence of violence towards women, worldwide. One contributing factor and one complex thing that we need to address is us as a society and community. Because the sexualization of young women and girls in today’s society is contributing to the violence against women,” said Truong.
“Part of it — and I’m not blaming the media — but I do want to highlight how we portray young women and girls on TV, in music videos, how we write about them, magazine shoots. All that contributes to sexual violence and the normalization of what we’re seeing.”
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