Editor’s note: As of March 9, this article has been updated to include comment from Carleton communications on behalf of Campus Safety. Both Carleton communications and Campus Safety initially stated they were not aware of the alleged racial profiling incident on Feb. 18 reported in this article.
Multiple Black students at Carleton have come forward with allegations of racial profiling on campus.
Oritseserundede Eda, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, told the Charlatan that he was interrogated two weeks ago by a Campus Safety officer about possible breaking and entering. He said this wasn’t the first time he felt racially profiled as a Black student at Carleton’s campus.
It was an afternoon on Feb. 18, the first day of reading week, Eda said, where he found himself in the “ridiculous” position of having to explain to a special constable that he was, in fact, a Carleton student.
“I was just there to study, you know,” Eda said. “I was trying to get into the Canal Building, and my card wouldn’t swipe. I called my friend to come open the door for me, and that’s when the officer approached me.”
Eda said the special constable asked him a series of questions about his program, year and what he “was doing there.”
“I told him, ‘I’m a student here, here’s my card,’ and he said, ‘but, anyone can pick up a card off the corner. You could be an attacker . . . you could be breaking and entering,’” Eda said.
Eda added that his friend Fritz Okrah, also a fourth-year engineering student who was there to study with him that day, then came to the scene.
Okrah, also a Black student, told the Charlatan it was obvious to him that the special constable only targeted Eda and himself because of the colour of their skin.
“I’d forgotten the pin number for my ID, and so I couldn’t let us in, and we tried to explain this to the special constable. The constable kept on insisting that for all he knows we could be attackers on campus,” Okrah said, adding Eda’s card was also physically damaged.
“This is shit my friend and I deal with everywhere else, but we pay a lot of money to go here. I don’t expect racism like this to happen on campus,” Okrah said. “I don’t want this to continue to happen on my campus, and I don’t want this to happen to anyone that looks like me.”
Eventually, Eda said, another engineering student opened the door for Okrah and him.
“It’s this student who I know that always sees me studying in the building, but then the officer tells him, ‘you know you just committed an offence—you let someone into the building that you don’t know. He’s breaking and entering,’” Eda said.
“I tried to show him my campus app, I tried to show him I studied here, and nothing—he just wouldn’t believe me.”
In an earlier interview, Brian Billings, director of Campus Safety at Carleton, said he hadn’t heard of this specific incident, but said he would look into who the special constable is based on the description provided by Eda and Okrah to the Charlatan.
But, Beth Gorham, Carleton’s public affairs manager, said “this incident was not a case of racial profiling,” in an emailed statement.
“The safety officer who dealt with two students at the Canal Building on Family Day did his job by following security rules that govern all students, faculty and staff at Carleton buildings in off-hours,” Gorham said on behalf of Campus Safety.
“The Canal Building was locked as it was a holiday. . . [the students] were not allowed to enter without someone who had authorized access. That would have been the case no matter who was trying to enter the building,” she added.
“Racial profiling is not what we do,” Billings said, adding that special constables at Carleton are trained under the provincial mandate for anti-bias training.
“But, also, because of the environment we’re in at a university setting, our special constables also go through more training with Equity advisors.”
Equity Services “encourages all members of our community to bring concerns of complaints of this nature forward,” Gorham said.
“Carleton is a diverse community that aims to be safe and inclusive for all, and takes the perception of racial profiling seriously,” Gorham added. “Campus Safety Services members are highly trained and sensitive to the needs and values of the community that they serve. They work and consult with all community partners to ensure they are delivering the highest standards and best practices in this regard.”
“We do have the avenue for anyone to file a complaint if people felt that an action by one of our officers was something that they felt was unjust,” Billings said. “And that’s something we work very closely with Equity on if there is something like any type of complaint about stereotyping or something of that sort coming in.”
But, as an international student from Nigeria, Eda said he has encounters like these every day.
“You know, honestly, I couldn’t even name the amount of times I’ve encountered racial profiling or racism of that sort here. It’s like there every day, in almost every aspect,” Eda said.
“It just doesn’t make sense. It’s the fucking 21st century, like you have Black people studying in engineering—it’s not a crime that we’re here.”
A third-year biotechnology student from Ghana, who requested anonymity because of potential repercussions from his family, told the Charlatan he experienced racism of a similar nature on campus.
“It was late at night in January when I was studying on campus, and I headed out of the University Centre (UC) to catch an Uber ride back home,” he said. “I realized I forgot my headphones on the desk where I studied in the Atrium, and so when I ran back to grab them, I found a Campus Safety officer running after me.”
“It’s a little thing, and a little moment that I didn’t think too much about, but the kind of questions he asked after running behind me, and even the fact that the officer thought to run after me at all, made me realize he obviously racially profiled me because I’m Black.”
Gowlene Selvavijayan, administrative coordinator for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Hall (REC Hall), said she hears instances like these every day at the centre from students.
“You know, this isn’t especially news to me. It’s little things like being dismissive to Black students in class, to bigger things that I hear about, but I hear instances and stories of racism like this through at least one or two students every single day,” she said.
David Oladejo, CUSA president, told the Charlatan “racism on campus is something that happens every day, even if it’s something that we don’t see very visibly with our eyes.”
“It’s not only just at Carleton, but we often like to think our country Canada is very progressive, especially compared to our neighbours in the south,” Oladejo said. “But, as a person from a visible minority myself, when people say they might have been racially profiled on campus, I definitely do believe them from my own personal experiences.”
“The biggest fault that we can have is to not acknowledge that this continues to happen, or to not believe someone when they come forward and say that they faced racism of this nature,” he added. “I think we need to address these things and talk about them.”
Graphic by Jasmine Foong
