UBC law school investigates racist ‘Zoom-bombing’
Posted November 17, 2023 9:42 am.
Last Updated November 17, 2023 6:41 pm.
The University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law is investigating after a hybrid presentation was “Zoom-bombed” by anti-Black racism.
The UBC Black Law Students Association (BLSA) said that someone drew racial slurs and offensive images on the slides while a visiting professor from Ghana was giving a presentation on Nov. 9.
The school says the online portion of the presentation was stopped but some students were in person as the incident was taking place.
The incident also unfolded in front of “members of the BLSA UBC Chapter, and the Black academic community at large,” the BLSA added in an Instagram post.
The BLSA says they are “saddened, embarrassed and appalled by what happened.”
In January, UBC’s President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusion Excellence (ARIE TF) released an anti-racism report stating that wanted to “integrate anti-racism theory and practice at the institutional, local, national and international levels.”
The ARIE TF emerged after anti-Black racism and violence increased in communities across North America in 2020.
“We are still in the process of investigating how this incident occurred and have been in close communication with the IT office at the university. We will also be examining our procedures for using Zoom in events going forward,” Peter A. Allard School of Law’s Dean Ngai Pindell tells CityNews.
“This was a horrific experience for the speaker, for the audience, and for our community. I am sorry that it happened, especially to our guest, and we will do everything that we can to prevent it from happening again. The incident is a sad reminder of the racial animus that persists in our world, and it is more important than ever that the law school provide spaces to convene in safety and collaboration.”
Pindell says the school’s initial understanding is that the password and link to the Zoom meeting were shared somewhere on social media without the school’s knowledge.
