It was 4 a.m. on a Wednesday morning when Carleton student Arun Smith first learned of the memes directed at him. He was having a debate on Facebook about the validity of cuts to the CBC when two of the people involved in the discussion referred to some new memes that identified him.
That day, April 4, Smith found 14 memes — pictures of himself with text superimposed on them— and he said he found all of them offensive.
“There was clearly some homophobic material there,” Smith said. “It was hateful, but my reaction was to put up a shield, to put up a wall.”
That approach changed as Smith, who is openly gay, found more and more memes directed at him, posted using Quickmeme. By the time he reported the issue to Ottawa police on April 23, Smith found a total of 39 memes.
“At that point they were violent, and they were hateful,” Smith said. “There are others that are just extremely, extremely homophobic.”
“And so I became very, very frightened and I reached out to my friends for support, I reached out to the university for support, and I went to police.”
The day after he made a report with Ottawa police, Smith went to Student Affairs to seek help. There are currently two ongoing investigations — one by Carleton administration, undertaken by Director of Student Affairs Ryan Flannagan, as well as another by the Ottawa police.
“I’m looking to speak with possibly five to six individuals,” Flannagan said. “They’re not suspects but they may have some insights into how [the memes] were created and who they were created by.”
If the perpetrator is found, the university has a range of measures it can act on under the Student Rights and Responsibilities policy, Flannagan said. This could include an apology, community service, a fine, or a suspension of at least one semester. This would be in addition to whatever charges Ottawa police might lay.
The memes were taken down April 25, after the programming coordinator of Carleton’s Womyn’s Centre, Diana Banyasz, sent a letter to the webmaster of Quickmeme asking that the posts be removed from the site.
“I really would like an apology from everyone involved,” Smith said. “I will support the Ottawa police if they decide to lay charges. And I will support Ryan Flannagan in whatever sanctions that he might impose.”
Flannagan said that the university will look at educating students on the damaging effects of cyberbullying next fall.
Since then Smith has started a Carleton campaign as a coalition with the Graduate Students Association, Equity Services, and Campus Safety aimed against homophobia and transphobia. The campaign uses
organizational material from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).
CFS started their campaign against homophobia and transphobia in partnership with Youth Line last year, creating campus guides, postcards, and support buttons to help Canadian students start campaigns on their own campuses. The materials were released May 17 on International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.
“What we’re trying to do with these materials is help people who are coordinating these campaigns – that first of all, it’s not just them, that there is [a] support network,” said Sandy Hudson, the CFS-Ontario chairperson.
Participants in the Carleton campaign will be speaking to classes on campus May 31 to outline the campaign’s goals and form a discussion panel, Smith said.
He added that although he was dissatisfied with the initial response from Carleton University Students’ Association, he has otherwise received a lot of support on campus.
CUSA president Alexander Golovko could not be reached for comment.
