Safer Spaces Policy

Our Values

Always Dale prioritizes the safety of everyone at our events and strives to create a respectful and inclusive culture. We believe every person is entitled to an environment free from hate speech, violence, predatory and discriminatory behaviours. We are committed to creating a supportive and non-threatening environment where all attendees can feel comfortable to express themselves and share experiences without fear of discrimination or reprisal.

 In the night-life scene groping, harassment, and assault are understood as “the norm” and occur far too often. We recognize our responsibility as a nightlife event organization to challenged this “norm” and raise the standard in the community. Through a workshop with Consent at Events we have created a Safer Spaces Policy and a Code of Conduct to better serve our community. We reserve the right to remove anyone who is acting contrary to this Code of Conduct.

We encourage our attendees to contact our Safer Spaces Liaisons or the event organizers about any incident that makes them feel uncomfortable and we will work with them to ensure their complaint is resolved.

Reporting After an Incident

Always Dale has partnered with REES (Respect, Educate, Empower Survivors) to provide online

reporting for unwanted sexualized behaviours. REES allows event-goers, performers, staff and

volunteers to Create a Record of the incident and share it with event organizers. REES also

provides information about community-based resources such as sexual assault centres, healthcare and other support services.

REES is a secure, user-friendly online platform designed to support survivors in reporting incidents while ensuring their data remains safe. As an industry leader in trauma-informed reporting, REES allows individuals to create, revisit, and submit incident reports with ease.

How to Make a Report

Please see the video below for detailed instructions on how to submit a report through the REES portal:

Support outside of Always Dale events:

Klinic Community Health provides health-related services and resources such as medical care, counselling and education.

  • Klinic Sexual Assault Crisis Line: (204) 786-8631

  • Toll Free In Manitoba 1-888-292-7565

Code of Conduct

People attending and/or helping out with our events are asked to be aware of their behaviour and the ways they could be causing harm to others.

We ask you to respect the physical, mental and emotional boundaries of others. Ask for consent before engaging in any form of physical contact.

We have a no tolerance policy at our events for any kind of:

  • Violence and intimidation. 

    • This includes behaviour involving physical force or the threat thereof, intended to cause harm. 

  • Discrimination. 

    • This includes the unfair or prejudicial treatment of anyone. 

  • Harassment.

    • This includes behaviour that makes another person feel uncomfortable. 

  • Sexual assault.

    • Canada has a broad definition of sexual assault. It includes all unwanted sexual activity, such as unwanted sexual grabbing, kissing, and fondling as well as rape. 


CONSENT

It is everyone’s responsibility to get consent if they want to engage in any activity with another person. If you do not get consent, you are at risk of doing harm. You need to get consent for any contact or activity – not just sexual intercourse. This includes kissing, touching, dancing, following another person as well as sexual activity. Any form of sexual activity without her/his/their consent is sexual assault.

Check for enthusiastic consent before dancing with someone (See FRIES below). When someone says “no” to dance with you, you respect their choice. A yes to dancing is a yes to dancing, not to anything else. You need to ask again if you want to engage in anything else.  

Avoid making assumptions about the identity, experiences and/or histories of other people. Keep in mind that intoxicated people are not always able to give consent.

Planned Parenthood has created the acronym, FRIES, which makes it easier to remember the 5 key aspects of consent.

(F) Freely Given.

  • Consenting is a choice made without pressure and in absence of the influence of drugs or alcohol.

(R) Reversible.

  • Anyone can change their mind about what they feel like doing, at any time. 

(I) Informed.

  • You can only consent to something if you understand the full story. For instance, agreeing to sex with a condom but not using one is not consent.

(E) Enthusiastic.

  • Each person must agree with enthusiasm, not because they feel pressure.

(S) Specific.

  • Consent must be received for each specific activity. For instance, consent for dancing or kissing must be given separately.


Event monitoring and reporting 

Our events will be monitored by Safer Spaces Liaisons and Security, who will be on-site to monitor behaviour not aligned with the policy and support anyone in need. Event attendees are encouraged to report any experience related to harassment, violence, or discrimination or if someone is acting in a disrespectful manner to a Safer Spaces Liaison as soon as possible so that we can address them in a timely manner. 

Safer Spaces Liaisons (Green Vests): Our Safe Space Liaisons identifiable by green vests. They have been briefed in the safe spaces policy and trained in responding to disclosure based on the Consent at Events training.

Security: Are identifiable by clothing that says security. All security must be aware of the policy and work with Safe Space Liaisons to respond to disclosures. 

As always, in an emergency or in immediate danger, call 911.

Distribution of Information 

To ensure that all event attendees are aware of our Safer Spaces Policy and how to report incidents, we will distribute the information through a variety of methods, including:

  • Social Media

    • Quarterly social media posts on Facebook and Instagram and a story highlight on Instagram that includes highlights from our policy and a link to access a copy of the policy. 

  • Website

    • Include a Safer Spaces page on the website that highlights how to report incidents.

    • A copy of our Safer Spaces policy

    • Safe Spaces page on our website with a copy of the policy and how to report incidents. 

  • Posters

    • Post print outs with information on our values and how to report incidents at the front of our events and in bathrooms (laminated to be reused).

    • Include a QR code to direct attendees to the Spacer Spaces webpage. 

    • Ensure posters are being pointed out to attendees by staff working the door. 

  • Share a copy of the Safer Spaces Policy with staff.

    • Send directly to all staff and ensure they are aware.


Ongoing commitment 

Always Dale is committed to continuously learning and doing the work to create an environment where our community can feel safe to express themselves at all of our events.

 Our Safer Spaces Policy will be continuously reflected upon and updated.

 We appreciate all constructive feedback from the community. Please contact dale@alwaysdale.com

Procedures

This is a general guideline on how we intend to handle reporting. There may be situations where not every step can be followed.

Updating: The policy will continually be updated to match/reflect industry benchmarks. 

Briefing Safer Spaces Liaisons: Liaisons will be briefed before each event. Briefing includes: 

  • Walk-through of the reporting form; 

  • Ensuring each green vests have access to this form; 

  • Walk-through of the FRIES consent model and;

  • Walk-through of the Managing a Report procedure;

  • Walk-through and confirming access to the Reprimand procedure; and 

  • The entire policy will be available to Green Headbands via Always Dale website. 

Briefing Security: The event security are not our staff, but they will receive a briefing on how we will manage an incident during our events. We do not have total control over venue security and their actions but are making an effort to work together to create a safer space.

Reporting to Safer Spaces Liaisons during the event:

This is the general guideline that Safer Space Liaisons are using to handle incidents during the event. There may be situations where not every step can be followed. 

  • Step 1: Begin by listening; ask what occurred?

  • Step 2: Ask if they need anything in that moment 

  • Step 3: Ask if they feel comfortable identifying the perpetrator. 

  • Step 4: Ask if they are okay if we ask security to remove the perpetrator from the event. 

  • Step 5: Help security identify the perpetrator. 

  • Step 6: Unless asked otherwise, security will remove the perpetrator from the event. 

    • Security will be expected to isolate the person from the crowd and remove them without using force. 

    • Security will be expected to explain what is happening while keeping anonymity of the person who reported the incident. 

  • Step 7: Safer Spaces Liaison will ask the person who reported the incident if they would like to go to a quieter space to document the incident. 

  • Step 8: Safer Spaces Liaison will lead the person to a quiet area and open the reporting platform. The Safer Spaces Liaison will fill out the form for the person.

  • Step 9: Provide the person with additional support such as the Klinic.


Violations: Violations of the Code of Conduct will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis using a survivor led model. We will also lean on the expertise of community organizations for further clarity. 

In cases where appropriate: 

  • A three-month event ban will be implemented.

  • If a second violation occurs after the three-month ban or if they violate their ban period they will be permanently banned from future events.