New information about the Dalhousie University dentistry scandal has been emerging at a rate matched by the emerging public discontent with the administration’s handling of the issue.
On Dec. 21, four Dalhousie professors filed a formal complaint against members of the infamous “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen” Facebook group. While students could have filed the complaint, “no student should feel pressured to come forward, and no student should bear the consequences of coming forward,” said Françoise Baylis, one of the four professors.
Their complaint was rejected on Jan. 7 because of a limiting clause in the university’s Code of Student Conduct. The clause specifies that complaints may not apply to conduct that is already the subject of a university action. As a result, when the dentistry Academic Standards Class Committee (ASCC) began a review of the Facebook group on Dec. 22, the professors’ complaint became “null and void,” Baylis said.
These complaints and reviews were triggered when documents leaked to the CBC in December revealed offensive posts in the Facebook group. These posts included a poll asking members to vote on which female students they would “hate fuck,” and jokes about using chloroform on women.
On Dec. 17, the Dalhousie administration announced they would be following a restorative justice process involving all fourth-year dentistry students to “help repair harms and determine the consequences for those harms.” The 13 members of the group were later suspended from clinical activities and began attending classes separately from their classmates.
One of these 13 students came forward publicly as a member of the group and the whistleblower who alerted others about the Facebook group, according to the Toronto Star. Fourth-year student Ryan Millet has the support of one of the female class members targeted in the group in his efforts to have his clinical suspension removed.
On Jan. 6, four female dentistry students from Dalhousie anonymously published an open letter to university president Richard Florizone in which they criticized the university’s restorative justice process. They also indicated “serious concerns” about filing formal complaints because they would have to make their identities known.
Because any action under the university’s sexual harassment policy requires a person to name themselves, the complaint on Dec. 21 would have helped avoid these issues, according to Baylis. “To be perfectly frank, I would have thought that our complaint would have made for an easy pathway through the thicket,” she said.
The faculty of dentistry is currently the subject of an investigation to examine sexism, misogyny, and homophobia within the faculty, by University of Ottawa professor Constance Backhouse, which is also an issue, Baylis said. The ASCC, which is reviewing the Facebook group, is comprised of members of the faculty.
“You’re going to have a committee investigating students for misogyny . . . and that committee is housed within a faculty that itself is being investigated for issues to do with misogyny,” Baylis explained.
She said this issue has demonstrated Dalhousie’s policies are not working well, “because they are not protecting the interests of at least four women who have come forward and publicly endorsed our complaint . . . We have in fact failed those students.”
Jacqueline Skiptunis, Dalhousie Student Union’s vice-president (academic and external affairs), said the issue has not been “adequately addressed for the benefit of students.”
The union is now working towards combatting sexism, misogyny, and discrimination on campus, according to Skiptunis. At a recent council meeting, the DSU passed a motion that proposed the university offer a compulsory course on equity and ethics, among other recommendations.
In the meantime, the university has also formed a Strategic Initiative on Diversity and Inclusiveness. According to a press release, this initiative “will consider new approaches towards nurturing an inclusive and respectful community at Dalhousie.”
