Anonymous threats of a shooting against women at the University of Toronto (U of T) have resulted in the school increasing security at its St. George campus.
The threats were made in the comment section of blogTO, a website focused on local life in Toronto, on Sept. 5. The threats were about shooting female students and professors at U of T’s school of women and gender studies and school of sociology.
U of T emailed all students on Sept. 10, five days after the comments appeared.
The university drew criticism from student groups and unions on campus for its handling of the situation and how it warned staff and students.
Ryan Culpepper, chair of CUPE 3902, the union representing contract instructors at U of T, said the university should have warned people about the threats faster than they did and given people more details about the specific threat against women.
“The response we were getting from lots of members at the time was that people were confused and more frightened than they were before the message came out,” he said.
Culpepper also said the university should have done more to let people know what kind of options they had.
“People needed real information about what was going on,” he said. “And I think U of T failed to let people know what options they had in responding the threat.”
The email sent to students said they are working with Toronto and Peel regional police to investigate the threats but said the risk to students is low.
The email also said that in response to the situation the university has raised the level of security of campus.
The Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE), a men’s rights group, decided to move an event called “The Politics of Gender,” featuring rape culture doubter Cathy Young, to a venue off-campus.
Executive director of CAFE, Justin Trottier, said they moved the event because of the threats and the student backlash against how the university handled it. CAFE had previously condemned the threats.
“The temperature has been quite high on campus. It’s a volatile situation,” Trottier said. “The concern is that this event at this time was just too much.”
Eric Parizeau, third-year political science student at U of T, says he has seen this at several buildings on campus, including Sidney Smith Hall, the hub of the university’s arts and sciences offices.
“Speaking as someone who’s been to these buildings on a daily basis for two years, these are not things I generally see,” he said. “They stick out like a sore thumb.”
Parizeau said he was glad the university is taking the issue seriously.
Jennifer, a third-year international relations and sociology student at U of T who did not want to reveal her last name, said she delayed her flight back to Toronto at the beginning of the school year because she was concerned about the threats.
“I was going to come back before school started but when I heard about it I postponed my flight schedule,” she said. “They made me feel insecure on campus.”
Culpepper said he hopes what happened on Sept. 5 will make U of T change how it deals with threats against the university community in the future.
“U of T has not been proactive in responding to threats against members of the university community,” he said. “I hope this will be a call to change that practice, which seems to be long-standing and wide spread.”
