I Believe Survivors

Content warning: Sexual Violence

On Sunday I posted a video on TikTok and Instagram where I detailed the sexual violence that I witnessed at the TMSU by the VP Operations, the report I filed, and how it was all largely swept under the rug. It unexpectedly blew up (I didn’t think a video so long would even get promoted by the algorithm if I’m being honest) and I want to give more context than I could in the video.

As stated in the video, over the period of January until I was terminated, I was supporting some students who felt uncomfortable with some of the behaviour in the office. I did not have the time to explain the larger context of the workplace in my video and I think it provides a lot more insight into why the situation reached the place it has. I had already been asking for, alongside several other full-time staff, better sexual violence training and I reminded management of the importance of doing sexual violence training ASAP multiple times over this period.

I figured that the situation was one where the VP Operations was not aware of the intricacies of consent and did not understand that simply by virtue of their position, there will always be a power dynamic between them and anyone in the workplace and that any relationship would be inappropriate. This was also occurring alongside multiple other workplace violence incidents which included student staff being yelled at in front of multiple other staff, people storming out of meetings, and overall just a very unprofessional workplace.

Since I brought up the word professional, I want to refer back to something I learned in my Professional Communication degree. We were taught that professional is often used as a way to police marginalized people and to force them into staying quiet because the issues they are trying to raise are too difficult to deal with. It is being said that I acted unprofessionally by posting such a public call out in this manner, and I should leave it to the proper people to do a real investigation. I would love to do that, because I truly want nothing more than to not be involved in this, but unfortunately when survivors brought their concerns forward no investigation was done.

The manager (who reports to the Executives, including the VP Operations) met with the survivors, met with the VP Operations, and two weeks later sent the survivors a copy/paste email that said their “investigation” found nothing. No one’s witnesses were interviewed, the other member of management who witnessed some of the behaviour was also not interviewed, and zero steps were taken to offer the survivors support. No policies have been implemented to set clear rules around workplace relationships. The sexual violence policy is outdated from 2015 and is not even made available to staff members. The first sexual violence training I received at TMSU was 10 months after I started, and 2 months after I first raised my concerns to management that Executives needed to be reminded about boundaries.

So I reject the idea that I am being unprofessional. I did what I could to privately support the survivors when they brought their concerns to me. I brought the issue to the people who legally have the duty to investigate and was ignored. I believe it would be unprofessional to let a workplace continue forward with sweeping sexual violence allegations under the rug.

It is also laughable that I am being called racist or misogynistic for bringing forward these allegations because the TMSU’s leadership is mostly women of colour. This is extremely disingenuous for multiple reasons, the first one being that this was not true at the time the report was filed. The VP Operations would also know every single one of the survivors is a woman of colour, and I am simply the one who has the security (job and otherwise) to go public with the information. And finally, the only reason it escalated to the point of a public call out is because of the attempt to cover it all up.

When I was in my first and second years, I was taken advantage of by staff and student leaders at the students’ union. I was manipulated into being on teams that only wanted to use me as a pawn in their efforts to control the place and make away with student money. Beyond the difficulties this caused me, I saw the pain and trauma that others around me were experiencing simply because they wanted to get involved during their university career. I saw people get death threats, get used as scapegoats for things they didn’t do, lots of bribery, and violence. I swore that I would do what I could to make sure that I’d do everything I could to protect future students from falling into the same traps as I did. This is why I ran for President when I was a student, why I agreed against my better judgment to accept a job there, and why I’ve continued to be vocal about the ways TMSU is harming students after I was terminated.

While the TMSU is now free from the people who stole student money for years, that does not mean we can accept less than the bare minimum. The bare minimum demands that sexual violence be taken seriously and that survivors always have a judgment- and reprisal-free process to report any concerns, even if the actions happening do not qualify as criminal sexual assault. Sexual violence includes jokes rooted in misogyny, someone not respecting personal space, purposely misgendering people, and much more that isn’t penetrative rape or another prison-level offence. Every organization should take strong steps to ensure all forms of violence are not occurring in the workplace.

I do not know why anyone thinks that this is some attempt for me to get my job back. In fact I believe it will do the opposite – I’m certain my willingness to criticize my former workplace publicly will be used against me in the ongoing grievance case that I have. But I don’t really care because if supporting survivors means I can’t work there anymore, I wouldn’t want to work there in the first place. I have no dreams or desires to work at or control the TMSU, and the fact that Nathan’s statement refers to the TMSU as something I or anyone could control says more about him than me. I worked at the TMSU because the current President begged me to, and I knew that I could help. I have continued to fight for what I believe is right because of the multiple students who don’t have the power to do anything and who have disclosed that things have only gotten worse in recent months.

I don’t have any agenda other than what I’ve always talked about publicly and proudly. Students deserve a students’ union that will fight for them, engage with them, and be accountable to them. It was my duty as a full-time staff member, and also just as a human, to uphold my responsibility to student safety and to ensure that the rules were followed. Nathan and the Executive Director, Reanna, broke the rules and are simply mad they’re being called on it.

I tried in so many ways to address this in better ways, and even begged on multiple occasions for management to not ignore the rules. I offered help since I have 4 years of experience supporting student survivors and am trained in difficult conversations. When this made no difference, I made it clear that I wasn’t going to participate in any efforts to avoid the rules. And at the end of August I was terminated and not given a reason. I tried to handle everything privately, not only for my own peace but for the survivors as well.

I believe survivors, and I will always do everything I can to support them.