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A frat house believed to be the site of a sexual assault earlier this month was the location of a previous rape investigation by police in 2012.
On March 27, 2012, Halifax Regional Police were contacted by a 21-year-old woman alleging she was sexually assaulted the previous October at 1770 Robie Street. No charges were laid.
“Through the course of the investigation it was at the request of the victim not to proceed with charges,” Halifax Regional Police spokesperson Dianne Woodworth writes in an email.
The Robie Street address is a multi-unit dwelling housing the Phi Kappa Pi fraternity, and the site of another alleged sexual assault that’s recently been in the news.
Woodworth confirms HRP were contacted this fall, in the early morning hours of November 1, to assist a citizen who disclosed she had been sexually assaulted earlier that night.
“We’ve determined that the reported sexual assault took place at an address in the 1700 block of Robie Street,” writes Woodworth.
A member of the Halifax Nova Scotia Anonymous group, which has been working with the victim’s family, confirmed in a phone call to The Coast that the location of this most-recent alleged assault was the Robie Street fraternity.
In the days after the alleged assault took place, local members of the Anonymous group released details about the incident in an online video that named the alleged perpetrator and displayed his photos and phone number.
Police spokesperson Lauren Leal told Global’s Rebecca Lau that those actions were “really irresponsible.”
“They’re naming someone. They’re accusing them of a very serious crime that hasn’t been investigated that hasn’t been tested in court.”
Police had ended any investigation into the Halloween-night sexual assault, stating the woman involved had declined to proceed. Comments under the Anonymous video appear to have prompted HRP to once more reach out to the victim and reopen the case.
It should go without saying that no allegations in this recent case or the 2012 sexual assault claim have been tested in court.
Police say they’ve responded 14 times to 1770 Robie Street over the last four years for a range of calls—including liquor violations, credit card fraud, mischief and weapons possession. The house is owned by the Phi Kappa Pi Alumni Foundation.
According to the international fraternity’s website, the Halifax chapter of Phi Kappa Pi was founded in 1923 as the first frat at Dalhousie University. It adopted its Greek name in 1959. Phi Kappa Pi accepts students from Mount Saint Vincent, Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s universities.
Dalhousie, like other universities, doesn’t have any direct affiliation with sororities and fraternities. The Greek organizations aren’t registered societies on their own. Instead, they operate collectively under the Halifax Greek Council, which at Dalhousie is managed by the Student Union.
Last year, a report by StudentsNS examining sexual assault on Nova Scotia university campuses called fraternity culture “especially problematic.”
Evan Hallward, then-president of the Halifax Greek Council, told the Dalhousie Gazette at the time that those allegations “created a divide where fraternities are the bad guys. It puts the word ‘fraternity’ in a negative light, even when the report doesn’t necessarily mirror what we do out here in Halifax.”
Another fraternity member belonging to Sigma Chi told the Chronicle Herald’s Selena Ross that he found the report’s allegations “disheartening,” and that his frat makes special efforts to educate members about sexual assault.
“The frat ensures girls at their parties have safe rides home, and they hire professional security staff and appoint certain members to stay sober and keep a careful eye on the party,” reported Ross.
The StudentsNS report found that most sexual assaults happen in the first two months of the school year and only about five percent of assaults are formally reported.
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This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2015.
I think it is very important to add that some of these police calls to these fraternities were made by the brothers and members themselves, and were not charged against the fraternity. The third fraternity is liquor free and will call the police if they find people drinking on the property. Not to mention, it was all of their stuff stolen by randoms in the break and enter. Don’t make these organizations worse than they are, it is often outsiders who are the culprits.
One other set of allegations, which were later withdrawn, which means they could have been a lie, does not constitute a history of sexual assault. I can also add that nobody has been convicted of the second act, so the number of proven sexual assault that have happened at this frat house is zero. Listing the other irrelevant police calls that you could attach to any apartment building in the city in which students live is just the shitty “journalists” at the Coast really, really reaching for a non-existent story to support the rape culture they wish existed in this city.
This article does not highlight or even acknowledge the fact that the frat members can be the victims in these listed crimes not necessarily the perpetrators. The way this article is framed suggests they committed these crimes with no proof of that being the case.
Hi Jacob, just wondering if you would consider someone with “a history of mental health issues” if they went in for counselling once in 2012 and once again in 2015? Or what about a “history of alcohol abuse” if someone got drunk in 2012 and again in 2015? Prehaps you forgo the click bait tactics and stick to the higher quality reporting you’re much more capable of doing.
This is probably the worst “article” the coast has ever written. A lot of good points in the comments. The mass amount of misinformation and straight up defamation/slander is insane. What a joke of a newspaper. As someone who lived there for 3 years I can say with 100% certainty there was never any incidents of weapons or credit card fraud within the house. Fraternities are philanthropic and academic organizations, but I guess it’s not as news worthy to report on all the money they have raised for charities.
This article has been posted in the twitter feed 3 times in the last 24 hours. Clickbait is right. :/
Once again the journalistic integrity of the the Coast comes into question. You neatly sneak in that the two charges that this headline blasts, were not tested in a court of law yet you make it very evident of the the writers opinion, with no evidence of their own, save for a third party video made by a group of rabble rousers. As a former resident for 3 years of the accused house, I find this whole piece to be slanderous and terribly amateur. As a heads up a resident does not mean a member, so my bias is from my experience being not associated and just paying rent. I witnessed countless women overly imbibe and the brothers will find their friend/s and get them into a cab to get home. I have witnessed brothers be attacked for defending incapacitated women.
Again, this is why I use theCoast now mostly to clean my glass, and to sop up my puppies accidents. DO SOME JOURNALISM!
A lot of hate here for poor jacob. I guess you all forget the sterling detective work he did on last year’s expose about the prozzie who was supposedly murdered at the Halifax Club and how the Edwardian era 1 percenters covered it up. He was robbed of the A.J.A. but not this year, dagnabbit!
They should rename this zine the Man Basher.
The bottom line here is sexual misconduct! It does not matter what sex you are or whether or not you belong to a fraternity. This crap needs to stop period!!! I have a 23 yr old daughter in her last semester of her masters and if something like this would have happened to her? Bet your ass I would call in my family aka Anonymous. Nobody in this family fights alone. We do not forget and We not forgive. We are watching everywhere!