The UQAM harassment prevention service had to devote more than 200 hours to manage a situation of group psychological harassment – ​​or mobbing – in which three female theater students prohibited the men in their cohort from collaborating with a student who was the subject of rumors of sexual misconduct.

As part of this case, the Office of Intervention and Prevention in Psychological Harassment (BIPH) says in a sworn statement that it had 70 meetings with 15 members of the cohort, as well as with the teaching staff of the Higher theater school, to try to find a solution.

The events date back to the start of the 2021 academic year. After seeing the name of the theatrical acting student on the anonymous reporting site Say his name, one of the students wrote a message to all the men in the cohort indicating that women of the group did not wish to collaborate with the student in a “professional or social context” given the allegations of sexual violence.

The theater students never contacted the anonymous complainant to find out the nature of the allegations published against their colleague.

They then met the student: “We told him that we had no solution, but that we were not well” in his presence, summarizes one of the three students in documents filed in court. “I met [the student] to suggest that he leave UQAM [and] go to another school,” explains a second.

Fifteen students then signed a petition indicating that they refused to collaborate with the student in the university context. The “emotional security” of the group was “unattainable” because of his presence, they justified.

They also created a chat group called “La Résistance”, whose discussions aimed to “plan exclusionary actions” against the colleague, according to UQAM.

The director of BIPH then met with the entire cohort, in the absence of the student, to find a solution. The meeting was punctuated by “screams of anger” from people who have experienced trauma, according to the testimony of a student.

The dean also sent warning emails and a formal letter to the students, demanding that they stop attacking the student, but to no avail.

Me Christina Mageau, a lawyer specializing in psychological harassment mandated by the BIPH, investigated the situation and concluded that the dynamic created a “harmful study climate”, marked by the relentlessness of three students against different members of the cohort.

Despite apologies and a desire for reconciliation that the students eventually expressed towards the student, the three students were suspended and barred from accessing the UQAM campus in September 2023 for a full session.

The students challenged their suspension in court, accusing UQAM and BIPH of “deficient management” as well as a “disproportionate” and “draconian” sanction.

“I should have listened more during meetings with the BIPH,” wrote one of them, in a letter addressed to management.

They later withdrew the appeal they had filed.

Little known in Quebec, group harassment, or mobbing, is well documented in academia and the health sector. Political scientist Eve Séguin, a specialist on the issue at UQAM, describes the phenomenon as “organizational terrorism” or a form of “social murder”.

Mobbing is a group strategy that aims to get rid of a person in an organization. And to get there, all means are good. The group employs pack justice, which aims to isolate the target. I don’t hesitate to call it “organizational terrorism” because the people in the group who witness it realize that very quickly, if they don’t participate, they too will become targets. People are scared.

Both are methods of psychological harassment, but for it to be called mobbing, the authority in place must side with those who are doing the bullying. In the most serious cases, the target can no longer turn to anyone, he has no lifeline. It is an unbearable situation that can lead to suicide. The authority can side with the mobbers passively, by looking the other way, or actively, by also seeking to get rid of the person.

Essentially, the group is spreading a rumor, which it shares with those in positions of power. It is a fundamental weapon in mobbing. For management, it’s uncomfortable to manage and it’s growing. Often, this pushes the management team to have a first meeting with the target, which destabilizes and weakens it. The person can then decide to withdraw on their own, by resigning, going on extended leave, retiring… or worse.

We live in a neo-moralist society where, as soon as you touch on sex, you can say anything. It is one of the best weapons of mobbing. In what I call the identitarian left, sexuality is often associated with sexual harassment. Anything closely or remotely related to sexuality is considered threatening to women.

Make sure you never act alone, because you too will become a target. We can open the eyes of the authority in place by acting together. A good measure to put in place in an organization is also to ensure that everyone can talk about everything, except other colleagues. All discussions are good around the coffee machine, except those concerning rumors about others.