Writing publicly about my experience as a survivor of sexual violence had become a huge part of my trauma recovery. But I worried about how the publication ban on my file before the Ontario Criminal Injuries Compensation Board could be weaponized against me. As we saw recently with the inescapable coverage surrounding Amber Heard’s defence in her ex-husband’s defamation lawsuit, people who commit abuse resist, suppress and distort the truth at all costs.

This verdict would have us believe it is more harmful to identify oneself as a survivor or victim of abuse than it is to perpetrate said abuse.

Survivors and victims do not share our experiences out of vanity, neither for glory or vengeance — in telling the truth about what we’ve lived through, we’re standing up for our right to survive.