Restorative Justice is key!
By Calvin Chou
Dalhousie University recently announced that they will use restorative justice to address the recent scandal at the Dalhousie Dentistry School in which 13 men in the fourth year of their program posted sexually violent and misogynistic comments about their female classmates on Facebook. The university’s decision has sparked immense outrage from the public, with protesters calling for the students’ expulsion. The fact that these students would be allowed to return to their program only adds fuel to the fire.
While I believe people should be held accountable for what they say, expulsion for inappropriate Facebook comments feels too extreme a solution. This scandal represents only a small part of a much larger issue, namely how deeply entrenched misogynistic attitudes are within the Dalhousie academic setting. There have been frequent complaints throughout the school year about misogyny within the Dalhousie dentistry faculty, with little action being taken. In order to create an academic setting that is friendly to women, critical discussion of misogyny has to start within the community through restorative justice processes.
Elizabeth Elliott, the late founding director of SFU’s Centre for Restorative Justice, writes about the community development potential of restorative justice processes in her book Security with Care. Specifically, she suggests the process provide a safe space for discussion, and present opportunities to broaden the community’s understanding of issues that affect them.
The key is to have a concrete plan towards change where progress can be observed.
Restorative justice processes address harms done towards both the victim and the community, by allowing the parties involved to discuss how the offender can repair the harm they have caused. Using restorative justice to deal with misogyny can mean encouraging offenders to enroll in extra gender studies classes, make a public apology, perform community service, or even seek counselling services. The key is to have a concrete plan towards change which allows progress to be observed.
Community members are often invited to take part in this process, serving as either mediators or contributors to the overall discussion. In this sense, women are provided a safe space to not only share their experience, but also contribute their thoughts on what needs to be done. Done correctly, restorative justice processes can become a community-building experience that fosters collaborative effort in addressing and understanding issues of misogyny.
It’s sometimes easy to forget, in today’s fast-paced and career-focused culture that the university institution is a place to learn. I feel much of the misogynistic attitudes and bigotry we find within the academic setting are born out of ignorance. If we intend to address misogyny in academia, we need to shift our approach towards informing and understanding through dialogue on the issue, rather than simply punishing.
Perpetrators should be expelled!
By Leila Bonner
The recent case of misogyny involving male members in Dalhousie University’s Dentistry faculty is but a reminder that such attitudes are still very present in universities. Despite the disappointing lack of expulsion in this incident, such a sentence must be considered as a potential punishment for acts of misogyny in academic settings.
Acts of misogyny are not accidental; they are committed willingly and willfully, whether or not the offenders mean for anyone to view their actions. The recent Dalhousie incident is no exception; the students involved posted their words online without regard for their classmates, humiliating the women they targeted.
When a deliberate act of misogyny is committed, especially within an academic setting, the perpetrators should have the experience and knowledge to understand that such acts are inappropriate, and should be subsequently punished.
Some thinkers may consider free speech an apt excuse to write off the actions of the Dalhousie students, as Mark Mercer of the philosophy department at St. Mary’s University argued in a CBC article last December. But freedom does not justify callous behavior. It is one thing to speak your mind and be heard; it is an entirely different matter to tear down the reputations of innocent people.
Acts of misogyny are not accidental; they are committed willingly and willfully.
The offending students did not commit physical violence towards women, but their actions are no less harmful. Their victims — the female students they wrote about — have been severely ostracized and objectified, and will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of their lives.
Misogynistic attitudes, even if only spoken, are the first step towards acts of greater impact, and must be properly addressed as such. We cannot expect things to change if we uphold tolerance towards such attitudes, even if that requires expulsion.
We have reached a point where hearing about misogyny in the university environment is unnerving, yet not unexpected, and where we see parents warning their children about safety rather than celebrating the ability for Canadian women to attend university — a privilege not all women across the globe enjoy.
As a nation committed to the protection and security of the individual, we must respond strongly to any acts of discrimination towards women. If we intend to deter and condemn rape culture as a whole, then we must target the issue at the source and set a firm precedent. Otherwise, such actions will only continue to escalate.
