Centre d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions sexuelles de l’Outaouais (CALAS)

CALAS de l’Outaouais is a non-profit organization, founded in 1977, that supports women who have been sexually assaulted and that fights against sexual violence.

Through its direct assistance work, CALAS supports women and girls aged 12 and over who have experienced sexual assault regardless of their age, culture, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or disability.

Helping, preventing and fighting to be “Free to be a woman everywhere”.

Sexual assault

There is more than one type of sexual assault – with or without physical contact. The impacts vary from person to person, regardless of the form of assault experienced.

  • voyeurism
  • exhibitionism
  • sexual Assault/rape
  • obscene calls
  • sexual harassment
  • pornographic exploitation
  • gang assault
  • prostitution
  • sexual touching
  • incest

These assaults can be committed by
by various people:

A friend, family member, spouse, acquaintance, professional, co-worker, employer, neighbor or stranger.

Taking action to make a difference

Free and confidential assistance offered to fit your needs.

One-on-one meetings

These meetings help women overcome the consequences of the sexual assaults they have experienced, through problem solving and personal empowerment.

The individual follow-up consists of a dozen one-hour meetings with a counsellor. Different tools can be offered depending on your needs. 

Support group

Support groups are offered during the day and evening. Five to six survivors make up the support group, which is facilitated by two support workers. 

The support group lasts 16 meetings, 2.5 hours per week, and allows women to break their isolation and work with other survivors of sexual assault on the consequences of this violence in their everyday lives.  

Assistance

To help you in the judicial and administrative steps.

We can accompany you in different steps according to your needs and decisions. 

Immediate assistance

Immediate assistance available 24/7 at 8-1-1 option #2.

We provide immediate assistance (24/7) at the hospital for women (13 yo+)
who have experienced a recent sexual assault (5 days or less).

Phone assistance

Do not hesitate to contact us for help or for any information regarding sexual violence.

Our hours of operation are Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
For immediate assistance, contact the toll-free line for sexual assault survivors at 1-888-933-9007 or Info-Social at 811 option 2.

Welcome space

The welcome space allows women who are waiting for support or who have already benefited from CALAS support to break the isolation and meet with other women.

Themed activities are organized monthly to equip participants to develop ways to take care of themselves.

You are not alone, Break the isolation.

CALAS offers confidential and non-judgmental help.

You are strong and brave.

I would like to take a moment to tell all the women living with violence, whether physical, verbal or sexual: You are not alone! Come out of isolation. Talk to someone. Get help. You are not crazy, you are living with serious repercussions.

Testimonials

No longer feel isolated, open-up to move forward. CALAS wishes to give a voice to women survivors of sexual assault. All these testimonies illustrate their experiences, their emotions and the impact of prejudice in their lives.

Fighting against prejudice

to demystify beliefs and fight against the banalization of aggression

As in all fields, it is important to be informed to better understand the implications and repercussions of sexual assault. To this end, we invite you to respond by true or false to the following statements concerning sexual assault.

Quiz on myths and prejudices

We suggest that you answer a few questions that come up regularly when discussing the subject of sexual assault.

– – –

A survivor of sexual assault must hate her abuser.

All people who sexually abuse children are pedophiles.

Biological predispositions put men at greater risk for sexual assault because they have a greater need to satisfy their sexual urges

Only a minority of sexual offenders are predators, mentally disturbed and not easily rehabilitated

It is possible for someone to have sexually assaulted me even if I have had consensual sex with them in the past.

After experiencing sexual abuse, it is possible to recover, live a satisfying life and feel good again.

Sexual assaults are mostly committed at night, on dark streets or in parks.

Lesbian and bisexual women are at greater risk of experiencing sexual violence.

Women lie when they say they have been sexually assaulted and often make false accusations of sexual assault.

People living with developmental disabilities are at greater risk for SCAs.

A girl who dresses in sexy or revealing clothes provokes sexual assault

Abusers are lonely men who are sexually frustrated because they don’t have a partner.

Women provoke sexual assault

If parents have had a normal sex life, a father would not commit incest with his daughter

The consequences can be as severe for sexual harassment as it is for sexual assault.

It is mostly homosexuals who assault boys, teenagers and men.

People who have experienced sexual assault are more likely to become homosexual.

People who were abused as children will become abusers as adults

Sexual assaults are most often committed by people known to the victim.

People who become sexually aroused during sexual assault are consenting because they have experienced pleasure

Alcohol is the most common date rape drug

Only 5% of sexual assault victims report the assault to the police.

If a person is not crying or visibly upset, it was probably not a serious sexual assault.

Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world.

Women in prostitution regularly suffer multiple forms of violence and have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the Canadian average. Do you know of any other profession with such conditions? Rather, it is the oldest oppression in the world. This myth serves to imply that it has always been there, that it will always be there and that nothing can be done about it. Thousands of women in Quebec suffer the consequences of sexual exploitation. To think that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, banalizes the fact that it is based on the exploitation of the vulnerability of these women. Would we accept rape or torture under the pretext that they are as old as the world?