The chair of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 at the University of Toronto (U of T), says she is not surprised at all by the findings of a recent Statistics Canada study that show harassment and discrimination are serious problems in academia.
“That’s something that academics and support staff have known for a long time,” said Amy Conwell, whose local represents postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and other contract workers at U of T. She says discrimination and harassment is “systemic, cultural and a well-known secret.”
She points to a recent investigative report by Al Jazeera and covered by the Toronto Star alleging a former Trinity College provost sexually harassed and had sexual relationships with some of his students.
Conwell says these allegations and the StatsCan findings raise important questions: “Why does academia foster or enable people who are predatory to be in positions of power? And why does academia silence folks who seek to speak out about it?”
The new data on harassment and discrimination is culled from a 2019 survey of approximately 27,000 full- and part-time university faculty, teaching staff, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, and college instructors. Participants were asked to report on incidents of physical violence, unwanted sexual attention/sexual harassment, threats to person, verbal abuse and humiliating behaviour.
For more information
2675 Queensview Drive
Ottawa Ontario
Canada K2B 8K2
www.caut.ca
