Dalhousie University delayed the announcement of the suspension of 13 male students in its dentistry faculty because it received reports of “credible risk of potential self-harm” by male students, president Richard Florizone said in a press conference Monday morning.
The decision to suspend the members of the Facebook group that made misogynistic comments was made on Dec. 22 but communicated today. Delaying the announcement was necessary to provide support to students when they are back on campus, the university said.
For now, the students have only been suspended from clinical practice. The university said in a statement that an academic standards committee is looking at whether suspension or expulsion from classes is warranted and if the students can meet “professionalism requirements."
“While [clinical] suspension is in place, the students can’t graduate,” Dr. Florizone said.
The president reiterated multiple times that the university is committed to a “just process” that respects the rights of all the parties involved, including the men.
Classes in the dentistry faculty do not begin until next week and further action, including suspension from classes, could be taken by then, said Thomas Boran, the dean of the faculty of dentistry.
The restorative justice process the university first announced in response to the incident is continuing while the school investigates other measures it could take.
Many in the university community feel that the restorative justice process puts an undue burden on female students. A rally had been planned at the university for Monday at noon and it was not called off as a result of the school’s announcement that it was, at least temporarily, suspending the students from clinical practice.
A group of four faculty members launched a complaint under the student code of conduct on Dec. 21 but had not had a resolution to the complaint by the time the university reopened Monday. A decision on that complaint will be announced later this week, the university said Monday.
“We as faculty made this decision to go forward for two reasons: So that no student need feel pressured to come forward themselves, and that no student feel or bear any consequences for making a complaint,” said Francoise Baylis, a professor in Dalhousie’s medical school. “We said we are going to shoulder that responsibility. We are not going to allow that burden to fall onto students.”
Dr. Baylis said the group was concerned that not all students who were affected had chosen the informal process the university first announced, among other issues.
The statements on the Facebook group belonging to the “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen” made threats of sexual assaults and harassment. On the group, members joked about chloroforming their female classmates to have sex with them and voted on which women they would most like to have “hate” sex with.
The university launched a restorative justice process last month after two women filed a complaint under the university’s sexual harassment policy and chose to proceed with the process. Restorative justice is an informal and confidential resolution procedure that includes the parties involved.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
The "Face Book Page" was confidential, private, password protected, and NOT
publicly viewable.
It appears a person, decided to entrap the others and then give all the
information to the raging extreme feminists.
In Florida, police used attractive adult women to gain web site address to
single men, and then, place meeting them, conditional on introductions to an
under age child. These men then ended up being charged with child sex offences
based on "entrapment" by police officers using, Adult women as bait.
This story has shown only one extreme feminist view point.
The fact is "The Victims" the female students CHOSE Restorative Justice and
that offends the raging extreme feminist male haters who
think all men are criminals because they were born with testicles.
Heaven help us.
Ottawa Mens Centre
The Story we are hearing in the press while as repugnant as it is, fails to
tell the whole story of the password protected face book page.
The language quoted indicates that some of these male come from cultures where
there is a lack of respect for women.
The aspect of using drugs etc is extremely disturbing that warrants an
investigation, and perhaps, psychiatric evaluation.
Before the world listens to these raging angry feminists looking for guts for
garters, there needs to be some rational thinking, logical reasoning on how and
what should be done when, The Victims, want restorative justice..
Now why would the victims choose restorative justice ?
That's their personal business that we don't have a right to.
The allegations however are so serious that the solution needs to be
a properly qualified "Risk assessment".
Just what if there is a remote chance that all of these men, or some of them or
even one of them, who actually wrote those offensive words actually is a
psychopath?
The only solution is to determine who wrote what and if there is a clear case,
then the writer should be properly assessed as to mental health, personality
disorders and
a Risk Assessment of what Risk they present to patients in the future.
Don't expect any logic in this case.
Its now a mad gender war where the victims are forgotten.
Ottawa Mens Centre