A male University of Saskatchewan student has been arrested in relation to the sexual assault that occurred in McEown Park on New Year’s Eve.

A campus-wide notice was sent out earlier today from David Hannah, University of Saskatchewan associate vide-president of student affairs, about the arrest. According to Hannah, Campus Safety and Saskatoon Police Services arrested the student yesterday and charged him with sexual assault.

The announcement, a day after the arrest, comes after the university was criticized for waiting six weeks to report the initial assault to the campus community. Speaking yesterday at University Students’ Council, Hannah admitted that the delay and the timing of the release — 4 p.m. on the Friday before Reading Week — had made it look as though the school was not treating the assault seriously. However, details following the alleged assault were “sketchy,” he said, and administrators did not know whether there was an imminent threat to others on campus.

Recent details, first reported in the StarPhoenix, show that the victim was allegedly drugged and violently sexually assaulted for hours in a McEown Park residence. So far, yesterday’s arrest is the only one made in relation to the assault, according to Saskatoon Police spokesperson Alyson Edwards.

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