Chanting could be heard throughout the administration office at Vancouver Island University (VIU) on March 21 as students protest what they call an incident of racial profiling.
Sisters Zena and Sara Kishawi say they are calling on VIU to launch an investigation around an incident where members of the VIU Muslim Women’s Club had their bag searched on March 7.
Sara said the group was studying in the school’s library when a VIU employee approached the bag at their table and searched it without their consent.
In a letter from the university’s president Deborah Saucier, she apologized on behalf of the university that the actions caused them to feel targeted and unsafe. She adds an employee expressed concern about a suspicious unattended bag to a senior employee who walked over to observe the bag in question, but neither employee involved were aware that the bag had been dropped off to the group.
CHLY has more on the story.
