My experience being racially profiled, illegally detained and having the RCMP Called by SFU Security
A thorough investigation by Katie Hyslop at the Tyee has brought the racial profiling and racism at SFU again to the fore. As a person of colour who has been a part of the SFU community for over 20 years, the failure of the institution detailed from ignoring clear acts of racism against Indigenous community members to calling police on Black alumni, are all too familiar. It seems that every few years some absolutely unacceptable incident happens that causes public outrage, yet after the furor dies down, the institution remains unfazed. SFU has been steeped in racism, from the Senior Administration down. SFU is a sick institution, as was recognized by a 2016 University Safety Committee noting some parts of SFU as “toxic workplaces” and further verified by the 2019 SFU Diversity Meter Survey. For students, that also makes it a toxic learning place.
I can count on a single hand the number of people outside my family who were aware of the story that follows. I’ve kept it hidden because of the intense shame and dehumanization that wash over me every time I recall it. This is but one of the stories of abuse at SFU that put an end to my career as an academic. While last year I finally finished my PhD, the heart and soul which I put into quantum materials research was completely depleted and I had nothing more to give, because of what I experienced at SFU.
I’ve decided to share my experience in the hope that it can contribute in some small way to the change that so many others have been pushing for. There’s been enough “comprehensive reviews.” Immediate action needs to be taken. Here is my story.
June 13, 2012
My work as a researcher in a laser lab often required long periods of data acquisition — it takes hours for our laser systems to stabilize and then many hours to take reliable data and then to reproduce the results. On the night of June 13, I was running experiments and needed a caffeine boost, so I walked to my home off campus in Burnaby’s Univercity community to have a coffee and then returned to the lab. It was a regular night, a little cool, and I was a heavy-set brown man wearing shorts and a t-shirt walking down a sidewalk in my community at night. I was not on Burnaby campus, and was completely outside SFU Security’s jurisdiction. Out of nowhere, I heard voices yell at me:
SFU Security Stop NOW.
I was just walking.
Instantly I felt fear, anger and betrayal. I knew from the tone and the fact that I was clearly not on SFU property, that I had been racially profiled. I’ve had many encounters with Security Guards and police before and never had a feeling that I was profiled. In this case, I just knew. There wasn’t a doubt in my body.
I shouted back, “I’m not on SFU property, you have no jurisdiction” and kept on walking. Behind me I could hear the keys jingling, foot stomps, and heavy breathing as the two Guards, one SFU Security Supervisor and one contractor, chased me down. The orders to stop and my assertion of the law continued for about 100 metres, when I eventually passed the waterfall feature near the Applied Sciences Building.
After the next order to stop, I knew that I’d strayed onto campus and they had jurisdiction. I obeyed, and didn’t respond. As I turned around the Security Contractor was upon me, clearly angry and ready to throw a punch. The Supervisor yelled that he’d called the RCMP on me and demanded ID from me.
All I’d done was walk down a sidewalk, outside of SFU, while being brown. Because I needed a coffee to make it through to the end of what was already a 14 hour research day.
I knew the law, SFU Security had no valid right to stop me, and while they could tell me I couldn’t enter campus via a trespass order, I had to be allowed to leave freely from a public space, which an outdoor sidewalk adjacent to a public square undoubtedly was. But my path to leave campus was blocked by a Security Contractor who was going to punch me.
The next part of the story is one of intense shame, for which I consider myself a coward to this day. I could have forcibly walked or run back across the arbitrary line of the waterfall outside of SFU jurisdiction, but I knew I risked bodily harm if I did what was right. The only de-escalation was going to happen at my behest. I decided to sit down on a nearby bench and consider my options. I was adamant that I was not going to show my ID to people who have violated my rights and racially profiled me.
It seemed like forever I was sitting on that bench, considering what would happen when the RCMP showed up to do their worst, but it was probably only 10 minutes. I made a decision. The Security Supervisor had offered that should I produce my student ID, they’d let me go without any question. That had the advantage of avoiding the possible harm of the RCMP. My brothers and I were the only brown kids in our elementary school in Coquitlam, I knew the consequences of an encounter with the RCMP.
I took the deal, my information was recorded, I went on my way. It should have been the end of it.
That I was allowed to go, not just off campus, but actually into the Applied Sciences Building without any question is definitive proof that I had been racially profiled. If I was actually a legitimate suspect in anything, I would have been detained, or least not allowed onto campus. Clearly the Security Supervisor knew at that point that I in no way matched the suspect description.
I was illegally detained and illegally coerced to produce ID.
I was another statistic.
Institutional Betrayal
If the story stopped with SFU security, it would have been damaging, but likely not imploded my academic career. But as it turns out, the Institution had a way to mess with my life for at least another 6 years. It is this part of the story that involves the Senior Administration, up to and including the Chief Safety Officer and VP Finance and Administration.
When the RCMP arrived, Security relayed that Derek Sahota was the suspect in an alleged crime on campus. They did that despite knowing that I did not meet the suspect description, which included: white, blonde, wearing a dark jacket, carrying a large suitcase etc. The RCMP entered me into their systems, including into the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) potentially leading to police across the country, the US, and Border Authorities finding a response of Derek Sahota: suspect in crime at SFU with a brief description. Similarly SFU had produced a more detailed report of: Derek Sahota suspect, with the details of their response to the horrible incident. At the time I had no idea this had happened. These were landmines laid by SFU that would derail my academic career.
In the aftermath of the incident, I was called in for a meeting with the SFU Security Supervisor. I put off the meeting until he was away and arranged to meet with a different Supervisor who was also a person of colour. He looked at the file, saw somehow that I was supposed to be white and blonde and quickly recognized something inappropriate had occurred. It was he who told me about how I’d been defamed in both SFU’s official records and how to look into the RCMP records. I went down to the Burnaby RCMP detachment and filed my requests. I simultaneously filed requests for SFU records under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Despite repeated requests, these were illegally ignored and it took until December 6, 2012 and multiple escalations to receive SFU’s records.
Being entered into CPIC the sole suspect in a crime has ramifications. As an academic crossing the US border for conferences, to collaborate on research, to use tools not available in Canada, are all part of the expectation of the job. Suddenly I was stranded and plans years in the making were disrupted. I’d already used 18 months of my 36 month Federal Government funding towards my PhD, by the time I cleared my name and was able to make arrangements to cross the border, I had one month of funding left.
Ironically, dealing with the RCMP actually had a just ending. After traipsing through their bureaucracy, filing complaints, and using some fortunate connections, I eventually received a personal phone call from the Officer who had taken SFU’s report and entered it into the system. He recognized his error and profoundly apologized. I accept his apology and have moved on. The RCMP as an institution regularly fails, but in this case I found a just resolution.
The same cannot be said for SFU. Despite the assistance of a friend and advocate, numerous letters, complaints, meetings with the Chief Safety Officer, and more, the response I received to the heart of my complaint was beyond ridiculous.
Not only did SFU argue that there was no issue with any of their actions, they stated that they could not and would not correct their records so that I wasn’t falsely linked as a suspect for a crime with a description that didn’t match me in the slightest.
Their excuses were that eyewitness descriptions are sometimes wrong and that records retention law required them to maintain that racist and defamatory record for 6 years. The only “justice” of any sort was this addendum made in tiny font on the bottom of the an addendum to the 4th page of a report which everywhere else listed me as the subject or suspect male:
6 Years
That timeframe has haunted me, and it was finally up at the start of 2019. During the entire intervening period any search by anyone at SFU security would bring me up as a suspect in a crime. I have no idea how many of the interactions with security — the time a different Supervisor tried a soccer tackle on me while I was just putting up some posters on bulletin boards, the times I was “randomly” followed, and so much more — were coloured by the racial profiling of 2012. During these 6 years I was certainly “familiar to SFU security.”
When I speak of SFU as a sick institution it is my numerous experiences with the Senior Administration that informs that. I expect that sometimes Security Contractors and Supervisors will make the wrong call and that’s a problem, but the sickness is that SFU continually refuses to put in safeguards to protect folks like myself, and then doubles down often to the extreme detriment of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour.
While my 6 years of silence bought destruction of my record (assuming SFU follows its own policies, which is another matter), I’ve decided to break my silence because the systemic racism at this institution and the white power structures that control it continue to harm my comrades. I’ve named no names except my own because I know SFU likes nothing better than to throw an individual under the bus, but this problem is so much larger.
In the aftermath of the December, 2020 incident on campus there have been many calls for action from SFU, including from the SFSS and from Black faculty, students, and staff, and other allies. I echo those calls, and based on my experiences, would contribute the following:
- Putting the onus on Black, Indigineous and people of colour to de-escalate is not a solution. This dehumanizes us, destroys our dignity and undermines our self-worth. In my experience, the self-harm of de-escalation was as real and damaging as any physical harm that could have come to me, perhaps short of grievous bodily injury or death.
- As many others have said, don’t call the RCMP unless there’s an immediate threat of harm; in my case this would have meant the CPIC file was never created and greatly mitigated the impact of the racial profiling. All efforts must be made to de-escalate situations first, if this means new training or the need for a new model and role for Security, then start that work now, not in 12 months.
- Publicly acknowledge that systemic racism exists at SFU and infects every aspect of the experience of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour on campus. When these folks and their allies bring up issues grounded in their experience, fully acknowledge the problem and harm and start making changes. Stop the endless cycle of self-righteous reviews by high paid consultants attended by highly paid administrators that have not made one ounce of difference over the past two decades. Any review should center on those communities actually affected and be determined and run by them.
- Immediately stop using the phrase “known to SFU security” or “familiar to SFU Security,” or any similar term in any public forum, legal proceeding, police report, etc. Because of the ongoing racial profiling that is an everyday fact of life on SFU’s campuses, these terms magnify the potential harm caused. Every use of these terms in light of SFU’s systemic racism results in illegal actions that are fruit of the poisonous tree. In addition, a proactive purge of individual security records needs to occur to ensure that people, such as myself, who were racially profiled are not further harmed.
Enough is enough.