Facebook pages promoting at least two white student unions at Canadian universities have appeared, two months after posters promoting a “White Students Union” were taken down from university campuses in Toronto.
Two of the most popular pages—one at University of British Columbia (UBC) and another at the University of Western Ontario—have about one thousand likes each. No white student groups are recognized clubs on campus.
Posts in both pages express pride in white Canadian and European culture. A post in the UBC group criticizes the number of students of Asian descent at the school. People who have commented in the Facebook pages do not list their university education, arousing suspicion the pages were not created by UBC or Western students.
Sara-Jane Finlay, vice-president of equity and inclusion at UBC, denounced the Facebook page and its use of the school’s logo in a press release on Nov. 23. The school requested the group stop using its trademark logo, and the photo was changed shortly after. Western also released a similar statement the day before, and the page was taken down before a new one was made.
The profile picture in the Western group shows J. Philippe Rushton, a former Western professor infamous for his research that alleged racial background correlated with intelligence.
According to an administrator of the UBC White Student Association page, who wished to only be referred to as Derek, the group is planning on increasing their physical presence at the school over time.
“We’re going to put a lot of time and effort in planning meetings, in order to make sure that they run smoothly,” he said. “For now, our reach will be felt on campus in numerous ways, but we’ll hold off on ‘public’ meetings for the present time.”
He said he was unsure about whether other white student pages are created by people at their school.
“Not all WSUs are legitimate. As the dust settles, many will remain, but many will vanish. We’ll watch the process closely and expand cooperation as we see fit,” he said.
