BC Lions on sex assault

The BC Lions are in Kelowna, but they aren’t here to play a football game.

Be More Than A Bystander is a project by the BC Lions Football Club in partnership with the Ending Violence Association of BC in the hopes of preventing youth from being bystanders to violence against women.

Over 150 students from across Kelowna met at Okanagan College’s Centre for Learning to listen to Eric Fraser and Rolly Lumbala.

“We want to empower youth to speak up and make a change,” said Fraser. “Be more than a bystander and break the silence on violence against women.”

A local high school football team stayed after the presentation to speak with the players and go over a playbook of hypothetical scenarios.

“There was even a football team here,” said Lumbala. “Kudos to them and their high school, it shows that they have great leadership.”

Fraser said he wanted to get involved with this initiative because the statistic that says one-in-three women will be sexually assaulted doesn’t sit well with him.

“We have a platform here being professional football players because people view us as tough and strong, so it is important to show that we can be caring and respectful.”  

The Be More Than A Bystander program will visit 20 schools during the teams off season. To learn more about the program visit their website.

“Enough is enough,” said Lumbala.