Nati Pressmann had just begun her sophomore year at Queen’s University in October 2022 when there was a string of hateful vandalism targeting Jewish students.
Someone drew a swastika on a fridge in a campus building where several Jewish students lived.
In the days and weeks that followed, there were more hateful symbols left on campus and in the surrounding community. The chilling message “Kill the Jews” was scrawled on a building near campus.
For the now 19-year-old Jewish Torontonian, the incidents were horrifying. But she also admits to having grown “numb to it.”
“I’m so used to it that it’s not incredibly shocking, which is really unfortunate,” Pressmann said.
Discriminatory and hateful incidents are remarkably common on Canadian college and university campuses, according to the 30,000 respondents to 17 separate student and faculty surveys since 2015, reviewed by the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) and the pc28Star.
But failing confidence in schools’ ability or willingness to respond forcefully has driven reporting rates for abusive conduct to startlingly low levels.
“Because you’re seeing incident after incident, many students think reporting doesn’t do anything,” said Pressmann, who has been involved with several Jewish advocacy groups. “But the fact that it’s reported is still super important. And I think that really needs to be emphasized.”
In the aftermath of the vandalism, Queen’s officials condemned the acts as “violent and discriminatory,” stating there’s The school vowed to investigate and “take action wherever necessary.”
Yos Tarshish, director of Queen’s Hillel, a Jewish student group on campus, says his organization hears of antisemitic incidents at least once a month. But students often see no point in reporting the incidents to university officials.
“They don’t believe that the instance they report will be taken seriously. In the end, it will end up hurting them more than it helps them.”
‘Fear they wouldn’t be taken seriously’
A 2021 Queen’s University survey found that 17 per cent of student respondents had experienced harassment or discrimination. Of those, just five per cent reported the incident to the school. Among the most common reasons cited for not reporting were the “belief that no action would be taken,” and the “fear they wouldn’t be taken seriously,” according to the survey.
In a statement, the university said it is “committed to making the university a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.”
Campus surveys have emerged in a growing effort to uncover the extent of discrimination at post-secondary institutions.
Conducted occasionally and often prompted by high-profile hate incidents and student outcry, the surveys vary widely, probing topics from general feelings of belonging or safety to specific instances of hateful conduct and the experience of seeking accountability.
Forty one per cent of Brock University respondents to a 2020 survey who said they reported incidents of exclusionary, intimidating, offensive and/or hostile conduct against them felt “it was not addressed appropriately.”
Brock University, located in St. Catharines, Ont., did not respond to a specific inquiry about dissatisfaction with reporting experiences, but in an email, a spokesperson wrote the institution was “encouraged by the (survey) findings that 83 per cent of respondents felt comfortable or very comfortable with the overall campus environment, and takes seriously its responsibility to address the areas of concern identified.”
When University of Manitoba survey respondents were asked in 2020 why they chose not to report their experiences of “incivility, discrimination, or harassment/assault,” they commonly cited the belief that complaints would not trigger action and evidence of “previous incidents being dismissed.”
“This university gathers information but does nothing to ensure safety,” wrote one respondent, described as an Indigenous faculty member.
Tina Chen, executive lead of equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of Manitoba, said there is a responsibility to “identify the inequities and work toward equity-based solutions … My hope is that all of these reports don’t just get shelved and put away … They’re actually an impetus for dialogue and trust-building.”
Similar feelings of exasperation and resignation about how universities handle hate on campus were reported by students from Western University in London, Ont., to the University of Victoria in B.C. Spokespersons from those schools said they take reports of discrimination seriously and investigate allegations.
Students who feel universities and colleges don’t take complaints seriously enough are right, said Walter DeKeseredy, a Canadian sociologist who studied and taught at four universities in Ontario and Nova Scotia before becoming a professor at West Virginia University.
“When you talk to students … they have no faith in the system,” said the co-author of a 2019 study based on a campus survey at West Virginia University that found close to 60 per cent of respondents reported being victimized because of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
Among respondents at the school with nearly 30,000 students, 38 per cent said racism on campus is a problem and 40 per cent said they believed women on campus experienced discrimination.
The realities are no different in Canada, he said.
“Canadians like to think of themselves as a kinder, gentler nation, but I think it’s very similar. There’s an underbelly to Canada that is not getting the attention it needs.”
That lack of attention, he said, is by design.
“I strongly believe, in my experience in working at Canadian institutions of higher learning, that it is purposely ignored. People aren’t gathering the data and they’re not gathering it on purpose. They’re scared. It’s highly competitive right now. There’s going to be a shortage of students because people aren’t having children. So schools are competing heavily for students.”
Many schools keep survey results secret
Many of the schools contacted by the Star and IJB said they either don’t conduct student and faculty surveys on questions of discrimination and hate, or do not make their survey results public.
One of them is Algonquin College, where a three-storey Indigenous mural was vandalized in January 2020. In response, Ottawa police charged a 32-year-old man with mischief.
The college also held a healing ceremony in response to the incident that included Indigenous drumming and dancing.
Two years later, in September 2022, another mural at Algonquin’s Pembroke campus that celebrates diversity and Indigenous Peoples was vandalized. No one was charged.
“These incidents of vandalism caused anger and deep disappointment across the college community, and indicated more work needs to be done to raise awareness,” reads a written statement from the school.
In August 2021, Algonquin College surveyed faculty to measure inclusion and diversity in the workplace. But the results were not made public and the university declined requests from reporters for access.
Queen’s University removed the swastika emblazoned on the fridge following the incident.
Despite having security cameras in the residence common areas, no perpetrator was ever identified in the case.
“It’s anxiety-inducing because you don’t know whether this person will do something again,” said Pressmann.
The is a non-profit investigative centre based at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
With files from Max Loslo of the Investigative Journalism Bureau
Robert Cribb is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: rcribb@thestar.ca
