Concordia addresses ‘open secret’
Investigation launched into sexual misconduct allegations at creative writing program
MONTREAL— Concordia University has launched a formal investigation into allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour by male faculty members toward female students.
School president Alan Shepard made the announcement Wednesday, two days after a blog post by Mike Spry, a Concordia graduate, that spoke of witnessing “innumerable instances of unwanted affection, groping, inappropriate remarks and propositions” in the creative writing program during his time at the school.
However, the allegations of sexual assault, improper relationships between professors and teachers and other questionable behaviour have been circulating among students and have been recounted in published essays going back several years. Many former students have described the problems as an open secret at the school.
“I’ve been reading that it’s an open secret but it was not an open secret to me,” Shepard said. “I wasn’t aware and if I had been aware, I would have acted sooner.”
In addition to probing the specific allegations of wrongdoing, Shepard has directed high-ranking administrators — the dean of arts and science, the deputy provost and the vice-provost of faculty relations — to meet this week with students, faculty and staff in the Concordia writing program to discuss systemic issues and ensure there is a safe and secure environment for all.
“These are complicated matters and we have to proceed with care. Peoples’ lives are affected by these negative experiences and the people who are facing accusations also deserve due process,” he said. “We take the allegations seriously. It’s not the case that we’re trying to sweep anything under the rug.”
Toronto poet Emma Healey wrote in 2014 about a harrowing experience with an older male faculty
“I do not believe there’s a single professor there who doesn’t know what’s happening.” HEATHER O’NEILL AUTHOR WHO WAS A STUDENT AT CONCORDIA TWO DECADES AGO
member whom she had dated for about a year while a student at Concordia. After crossing paths with him again at a bar, she wrote that he walked her home and forced himself on her.
“I remember his hands around my wrists. I remember him saying, ‘You’re not telling me you don’t want to,’ ” she wrote.
The Star has spoken to other women who have detailed alleged abuse and inappropriate behaviour by male faculty at Concordia, but who asked not to be identified.
Award-winning Montreal author Heather O’Neill, who studied at Concordia two decades ago, said she was harassed by a professor.
“Just to show that this is not something that you can pinpoint on a few professors — it’s endemic and systematic within Concordia’s creative writing program and I do not believe there’s a single professor there who doesn’t know what’s happening,” she said in an interview with the Canadian Press.
She was reluctant to come forward as a young female writer.
“I didn’t want to start my career by attacking these older, white men who had platforms and were very well connected,” O’Neill said.
“As a young woman . . . I would say I was vulnerable to these forms of abuse. I didn’t even realize how wrong it was.”
Influential Toronto editor and bookseller Martha Sharpe said she was outraged to hear about the allegations of wrongdoing at Concordia’s creative writing program.
“It’s your entrance to the industry and to think that it’s being marred by this ridiculous behaviour just sickens me,” she said in an interview.
Speaking of the alleged behaviour by male writers, she said: “They’re teachers, they’re professors, they’re in academic institutions. There should be no tolerance.”
Like many others in the Canadian literary community, Sharpe said she read Healy’s 2014 essay about her experience as a student and assumed that the problem had been or would be dealt with.
“I just sort of figured that since it was out there and people in the know knew who she was talking about, that that person would have been confronted and called to account and to atone or something. I couldn’t believe that he was still employed by the university,” she said.
Shepard, Concordia president since 2012, refused to say if any employees of the school have been suspended pending the investigation, citing privacy concerns. He told reporters he had no idea of the problems that have been alleged.
“I wasn’t aware and if I had been aware I would have acted sooner,” he said.
Sharpe is calling on editors, publishers and book sellers like herself to exert influence and change behaviours in the industry.
Alana Wilcox, the editorial director of Toronto publisher Coach House Books, said she was shocked by the developments. “We strongly condemn that kind of behaviour,” she said. “We would never knowingly publish a sexual predator.”