Wokeness continued to prevail in Canadian colleges and universities in 2022, with cancel culture, reverse racism and Covid hysteria plaguing campuses across the country.
True North has compiled seven notable stories that took place on Canadian campuses this year.
- Western University imposing a booster mandate
Western University in London, Ontario announced in late August that they would be mandating three Covid vaccine doses for students, staff and visitors, in addition to requiring masks in “instructional spaces”. This made Western the first Canadian university to impose a wide scale booster mandate.
The school received backlash from students, as well as politicians and health experts. A campaign called Enough is Enough was started by Western student Kendra Hancock, which organized a large protest against the mandate in late August. The university’s student union, on the other hand, refused to oppose the booster and mask mandates.
Western ended up moving the deadline to get boosted from Oct. 1 to Jan. 9 amid Health Canada’s approval of the “bivalent” Covid vaccine. The university then quietly dropped the vaccine mandate on Nov. 29, to the relief of many students.
- Laval University job posting excluding white men
Quebec City’s Laval University received widespread backlash in the spring over a job posting for a Canada Research Chairs (CRC) position that excluded able-bodied white men. The university claimed that the latter was being done to meet diversity requirements.
Various politicians denounced the posting, including several Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) ministers, Quebec opposition party leaders, and even Federal Liberal MPs Joel Lightbound and Anthony Housefather. Furthermore, Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus and People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier had told True North they were opposed to the university’s actions.
College Dawson professor Frederic Bastien filed a human rights complaint against the university and the Canada Research Chairs Program this fall, claiming discrimination against because he is a white male. The Quebec National Assembly also unanimously passed a motion that expressed support for merit-based hiring while denouncing race and gender quotas.
- Guelph University defending racially segregated Yoga class
Racial segregation in the name of “anti-racism” was common on Canadian campuses in 2022, as highlighted by True North’s Campus Watch reporting.
A dramatic story unfolded after Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay called out a racially segregated “Restorative Yoga” Session taking place at the University of Guelph on Twitter. The latter was being hosted by Selam Debs, who describes herself as an “antiracism educator, an anti-oppression coach, a social justice advocate,” among other things.
Debs fired back at Kay for calling out the event, claiming he was “harmful” and said the way her “sacred” segregated yoga class was “attacked and targeted” was itself a form of racism and white supremacy. Several progressive accounts also took to twitter to defend Debs while hitting back at Kay – who later described the situation to True North as “crazy”.
In response to the controversy, the University of Guelph issued a statement saying “safe spaces are created to give people from equity-deserving groups support, a sense of well-being and a chance to heal.” The university also said Debs had been invited to “provide a safe, healing space for Black students, faculty, and staff to share their lived experiences and learn about the supports available to them at U of G.”
- McMaster University holding a “Black Graduation ceremony”
Hamilton’s McMaster University held a special racially segregated graduation ceremony for “Black identifying students” this spring. The ceremony was however separate from the main convocation and attendance was not mandatory for black students.
Black Student Success Centre manager, Faith Ogunkoya, who organized the ceremony, told CBC that “the whole day was about celebrating and centering Blackness.” Among other things, it featured the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, a hymn that has been dubbed as the “Black National Anthem”
It should be noted that McMaster was not the first Canadian University to hold a racially segregated graduation ceremony. The University of Toronto hosted a ceremony dedicated to black students back in 2017.
- George Brown colleging requiring that students state they “benefited from genocide”
Toronto’s George Brown college made international headlines after it required that students sign an online waiver declaring they are settlers or displanted people who benefited from the “colonization and genocide of Indigenous people” to be able to gain access to their classes.
“As settlers or the displanted, we benefit from the colonization and genocide of the Indigenous peoples on this land. In order to engage in resistance and solidarity against the past and present injustices inflicted on the Indigenous people of this land, it is imperative we constantly engage in acts of awareness and decolonization,” the waiver read.
Not agreeing to the statement resulted in students ultimately being denied access to their online courses.
- Mount Royal University cancelling hockey to be “inclusive”
Calgary’s Mount Royal University announced in August that it was cancelling its ice hockey intramural amid working towards “achieving an accessible and inclusive program where all feel they belong.” The university noted that while evidence shows ice hockey creates a sense of belonging for some, there are “critical areas that require improvement.”
“Upon completion of these assessments it was determined that Ice Hockey intramurals be put on hold until we can implement strategies to ensure the ice hockey program we could potentially put forward in the future is equitable, inclusive, and accessible to program participants,” said the University in a Statement.
Former hockey player and student Conor Monaghan slammed the university’s decision, telling The Counter Signal that “cancel culture is playing a big factor in this. Rather than having a conversation with the participants involved, the university has decided to completely extinguish ice hockey.”
- Ryerson university changing its name to TMU
After announcing intentions to rename the school in 2021 following years of debate, Toronto’s Ryerson University revealed in April 2022 that it would now be called Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
The name change came amid leftist activists accusing Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist minister and educator who is a prominent figure in early Canada, of being responsible for the residential school system. Ryerson did not invent the system.
Prior to the school being renamed, a statue of Egerton Ryerson on campus had been toppled, and students and faculties had begun referring to the school as “X University.”
While many on the left, including NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, shared their happiness with the decision to cancel Ryerson, others criticized the move.
With files from True North’s Andrew Lawton, Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Rachel Emmanuel.
