Victoria College’s dangerous relationship with the police
Content warning: mentions of mental health crises, suicide, police
In 2019, a UofT student publicly stated she was “handcuffed by campus police while at the Health and Counselling Centre seeking help for suicidal thoughts.” The student had done all the ‘right’ things when facing a mental health crisis on campus: she went to see a campus psychiatrist but was told getting an appointment could take months. She then talked to a nurse who reassured her that it was protocol to speak with campus police. The night she was escorted out of a campus building against her will and into a police car, she recalled feeling as if this was her “fault for coming to get help.” This incident would take place just five days after another student died by suicide.
Unfortunately, this is not the only instance for UofT students. A 2021 report indicated a 30 to 50 percent increase in university students who have been apprehended and transported for care to mental health emergency departments since 2014. These transportations—often forcibly—only contribute to the re-traumatisation of students in crises. With seemingly nobody else to advocate for them, students have long called for a non-police model of response that, instead, utilises clinical expertise, peer support, and trauma-informed approaches. Yet, to this day,
students are feeling intimidated, criminalised, and stigmatised by what is now rebranded as Campus ‘Safety.’
How and when are the police called at Victoria College?
According to the Dean’s Office, their “approach to engaging with Toronto Police Services or UofT Campus Safety is to contact them only if there is imminent danger to students on or off campus, to members of our community, or if we receive a request from a student in crisis to do so.” Dean of Students, Kelley Castle, did not elaborate on what her office determines as “imminent danger,” though at the last Fall Caucus, she stated that they “only call [Campus Safety] when we deem that you are either a harm to yourself or a harm to others… It’s only for a few of those cases, and it’s because we can’t handle the situation ourselves, and we think that the students need more than what we can provide.” It is important to note that according to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) “people with serious mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violence themselves, than the general population.” Dean Castle explained in a statement to The Strand that there are other reasons Emergency Services may be called on students such as “medical reasons, both from within the university and in the general public. This does not always, but may, result in police communications and/or presence. There are times when Toronto Police Services are called by members of our community, including students, and our staff become
involved only after we have been alerted about the situation.”
At the most recent Fall Caucus, Zoё Lazaris, a soon-to-be Vic graduate and former member of the Board of Regents who did Cops Off Campus work during her time at UofT, spoke about concerns relating to police response in mental health crises. According to her and as confirmed in UofT’s 2021 Review Committee on the Role of Campus Safety, “people who work in universities and Dean’s Offices are calling cops not because they think it’s helpful, but because they’re afraid they’d lose their job if they don’t do that. So is this something that is a legal liability, or are we actually helping students?”
Lazaris continued to explain in an interview with The Strand that based on her conversations with students, “what realistically happens in so many cases is the cops show up, restrain the student, put them into a car, they’re shipped down to CAMH [the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health] or something, and then half the time the hospital turns them away… now they’re just alone in a part of Toronto that they’ve never been to. And the cop car drove away as soon as they got into triage. That’s not how you help someone who’s suicidal. Now they’re by themselves in the cold, alone, and re-traumatised.”
Following a request for data on the number of times that the police are called on students and the demographics of these students, Dean Castle revealed to The Strand that “Victoria University does not maintain a central database of engagement with Toronto Police Services, and we are exploring this for the future.” This implies that the Dean’s Office has no case files which they could use to count the instances or specific demographic of cases where they involve the police. The Toronto Police Service has a long history of using excessive force in situations involving racialised peoples. This is compounded when only five out of 32 Special Constables with Campus Safety received the one hour of Mental Health Supports for BIPOC Students Webinar Training. Simultaneously, only four out of 32 Special Constables received Autism Spectrum Disorder Training or Scenario Based Mental Health and De-escalation Training. A lack of data on these decisions by administrators manufactures blindspots in the assessment of risk for students and staff.
In relation to the complex experiences of different students, Lazaris recognised, “It’s especially bad for marginalised or immigrant students who don’t have citizenship here. Getting involved with law enforcement is really scary, especially when it’s mental health stuff, where you’re worried about all the parts of your life collapsing.”
The student-led Cops Off Campus movement
The Cops Off Campus movement has been strong across UofT for many years. In 2020, over 130 professors and students signed an open letter to UofT President Meric Gertler to defund and abolish the campus police. There has been a recent resurgence of activism by various students and student groups at Vic. Members of the Vic Social Justice Coalition have been meeting with administrators such as the Dean’s Office, the President’s Office, the Office of the Principal, and the Office of Alumni Affairs to advocate for policing alternatives and trying to garner support.
In an interview with The Strand, Anasofia Florez, the Vice-President of Vic Organization for Information, Care, and Empowerment of Survivors (VOICES), explained how her organisation became involved with the movement in the wake of the stabbing at Waterloo this past June. She says that they reached out to stakeholders with similar goals, which “came from both VOICES as well as Vic Pride having a list of demands that VUSAC was familiar with…Vic Black is also in along with us on these calls and have been doing similar work…same goes of course for Students for Collective Resistance Victoria.” The groups are working on an informational campaign about police alternatives for both staff and students, which will be distributed in collaboration with the Dean’s Office. Florez remarked, “Unfortunately, abolitionist work at Vic ends at the point at which we say police actually should be off campus. We’re still seeing an unwillingness to fully commit to alternative resources, but there’s a willingness to open up knowledge and to ultimately put it back in the hands of students about what resources they take advantage of when they and their peers need it. Ultimately, it seems that the culture and dynamic of Vic will be shaped by giving people informed and meaningful choices.”
The Strand confirmed with Victoria College that when students choose to disclose their mental health crises to members of the Dean’s Office, they are not informed that their disclosure may result in police action by Toronto Police Services. This lack of informed consent when students disclose information about their mental health is very troubling. If administrators are withholding the possible outcomes of students using their resources, they may lead students down paths of help, which can cause further harm. The principles of informed consent are essential to students as a means of affirming autonomy and dignity when dealing with administrators.
There has also been a pervasive issue of a lack of sensitivity and confidentiality by members of the Dean’s Office when dealing with matters relating to policing. Lazaris described her experience at the most recent Winter Caucus, where “Kelley [Castle] spoke about police and mental health, and she said she doesn’t call cops in instances of student mental health. And I was in the front row of the audience. The year before, I had brought up to her that she really mishandled a case where she called the police. Hearing her say that is very triggering, so I start to well up. I look up at her, and she calls me out in the audience. This is a sensitive issue, and she’s generally not very sensitive about stuff.”
Unfortunately, the issue of sensitivity surrounding student matters is not isolated to Dean Castle, as Lazaris continued that she “tried to file an equity complaint against Kelley for calling me out publicly for starting to cry when she was talking about policing. I filed a complaint with Ali [Kehl].” Lazaris went on to share her belief that the report was passed up the office to Dean Castle, as she received an email from the Dean, which Lazaris characterised as “super dismissive.” Lazaris continued to note that the office “should not have reported this back to the person who did the equity mistake.” She concluded by remarking that “there’s no confidentiality in that office even when it’s cases of students’ trauma and students filing complaints against them. If you file a complaint against them because they mishandle, or mistreat you, or if they call the cops on you, they will be the ones dealing with your complaint.” This lack of confidentiality, sensitivity, and basic professionalism by the Office of the Dean of Students can be worrying when involving police officers and student mental health emergencies.
Administration responses to student concerns
In November 2021, UofT’s Review Committee on the Role of Campus Safety hit the nail on its own head, professing that “it is clear that a consolidated and coordinated approach to crisis on campus that is consistent across day, evening, and night as well as weekends (24/7) does not currently exist at the University of Toronto.” In contrast, the University of Guelph has adopted a hybrid approach in which contracted mental health professionals from CAMH partners with their Campus Safety to form an after-hours response team.
In their final report, the Review Committee made three over-hauling recommendations to UofT when attempting to reorient the role of Campus Safety. First, incorporating mental health education and equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism resources. Second, embracing changes to Campus Safety that will enhance student’s choice, autonomy, and dignity. And, third, developing a non- policing approach to responding to students in mental health crises, with a tri-campus approach to crisis intervention during regular working hours and connections to after-hours crisis support.
In an email to The Strand, the Dean’s Office shared that Vic has recently invested in more mental health resources for students, including additional staff and programs that engage Emmanuel College interns training as psychotherapists as a form of resource for students on campus. It is their self-proclaimed goal to “support students before things escalate to the point where a crisis requires intervention from Toronto Police Services.”
So, what’s next for Vic?
While this appears to still be a protocol for escalated situations, student groups are still fighting to ensure that police are ultimately obsolete on campus. A 2019 study conducted by Fiona G. Kouyoumdjian et al. in Toronto found that interactions between police and individuals with mental illness were often confrontational and led to negative outcomes. One participant explained, “The police are not trained to deal with mental health issues. They’re just trained to deal with criminals.” Lazaris reiterates that “there should be other services that cover all of the roles that cops are ‘supposed to do,’ which they butcher every time.”
The biggest aim of the ‘Cops Off Campus’ movement is to push for the university to invest in alternative infrastructure. According to Lazaris, this should include paid positions that are hired specifically for de-escalation and peer support by people who are trained with lived experiences. Additionally, rather than deploying Campus Safety to respond to mental health crises, it is vital—and more sustainable in the long run—that the university address the very root causes of these crises. Studies note that police-led models of crisis intervention often rely on a criminal justice approach that reinforces stigma and does not address the underlying issues of mental illness and homelessness. Lazaris maintains that “housing needs to be more affordable. Food needs to be more accessible. The stress of school should not be so bad that it is making someone want to take their own life or do something, where the Dean’s Office seems to think this has escalated beyond their control. We’re a community, and at a school that has so many resources, it should not get to this point.” Also focusing on socio-economic issues, Florez proposes that a police-free campus could mean redirecting funds and efforts into advocating for monetary stability for students through awards and bursary processes. Vic student groups are also working on elongating access to the Goldring Student Centre to create safe spaces for community building.
Though infrastructural flaws remain in the framework for Campus Safety, there are alternatives for students living in Toronto. Students in crisis can reach out to the Gerstein Crisis Centre—a 24/7 telephone service that provides support for mental health and substance use crises. Lazaris emphasises that “a smaller win, for now, is warm lines that already exist. [The Dean’s Office] can call the Gerstein Crisis Centre. That is a zero-dollar change in their protocol. That could be their first call. There are alternatives. They’re not perfect, but they are not cops and they have way better outcomes than police.”
Abolitionist work continues at Victoria College and UofT more broadly.
While the Dean’s Office provided written statements to The Strand, following direct requests for interview, an administrator declined through the Victoria University Director of Communications
