Feeling unsafe at the local bar? Ask for the 'Island shot'
Ordering the 'Island shot' indicates to staff that a patron needs help
The P.E.I. Rape and Sexual Assault Centre has launched a new campaign to help Islanders feel safer when going out for a drink with friends.
Posters will be going up in bars around the province advertising the "Island shot," which is a new way to ask bar and restaurant staff for help if you feel a situation could lead to trouble.
You can order the "Island shot" three ways: "Neat" means you will get an escort to your car, "on the rocks" means a cab will be called for you, and "with lime" indicates police should be called to intervene.
Candace Hagen, sexual violence prevention and public education coordinator with the centre, will be contacting licensed establishments to ask if they will put the posters in their washrooms.
Staff at each bar and restaurant will have to undergo training before they receive their posters. The campaign is partly in response to news of the prevalence of spiking drinks in Island bars.
Kinley Dowling, a P.E.I. musician and advocate for sexual assault victims, is supporting the campaign. Dowling said she has heard from dozens more women since she took drink-spiking complaints from 17 women to police last June.
"I just want P.E.I. to be a safer place where you don't have to be worried when you go out with some friends to a bar," she said.
"To know that your community and the people around you have your back."
The posters will be going up in all washrooms, men's included, said Hagen. She noted one in six men are victims of sexual assault.
"We really just want to, also, shift the conversation that [this is] a problem that is managed and dealt [with] by women," she said.
Hagen and Kinley are also hopeful the posters could act as a deterrent.
With files from Angela Walker