Legal Costs Holding McMaster Accountable

Hello,

I need the community's help to afford legal representation in my court case against McMaster University. On the first day of the Fall Semester of 2019, after joyfully accepting my offer of entry into the School of Social Work (a long-time dream of mine), I had a professor say to me, "white men do not speak in my class." The professor's name is Jennie Vengris, a well-respected teaching faculty of the university.

To help you understand why this experience was devastating to me, there are a few things that I can share. About five years before pursuing my academic dreams, I was homeless for a large portion of my adolescence and early adulthood, living on the streets of Brampton and Hamilton. I received the Hamilton Recovery of the Year Award when I got sober, found a home, and better yet, a life worth living. That being said, I would like to make something very clear. I do not believe that anyone needs to have multiple near-death experiences fighting their way out of homelessness and addiction to qualify as a student who shouldn't have their professors institutionally marginalize them through overt acts of silencing.

After filing a grievance about the incident involving Ms. Vengris through McMaster University using all the appropriate channels, my life there became hell. First, I had a lawyer at the University's Equity and Inclusion Office answer my inquiry about human rights violations by saying, "yes, this is a human rights violation. But I wouldn't do anything about it if I was you, or you will be socially crucified." The lawyer failed to mention the statute of limitations for filing human rights violations.

Everything just kept getting worse for me at McMaster, and my story became even more complicated. The overt prejudice and hatred that I experienced at McMaster became a daily occurrence, and I didn't know what to do considering I was already doing everything I was supposed to. As a result, I started standing up for myself in situations where I felt I still had a voice, situations where folk's words are traditionally heard and taken seriously.

However, resulting from my intolerance for bigotry, constantly battling through a politically toxic environment of hatred, McMaster interpreted my behaviour as a mental health problem instead of holding their faculties accountable. The Dean of Students implemented an involuntary withdrawal from studies provided to him through, believe it or not, a policy named 'Code X'. Code X is a McMaster policy that allows the Dean of Students to pull a student from their studies if they are suspected of having mental health issues that disallow them from succeeding or compromise the learning environment of their peers. This action based on speculation about mental health is inherently rooted in discrimination and can reasonably be understood as an additional human rights violation. After much discussion with the McMaster student Ombudsman, it became apparent Code X is rarely used, and when it is used, no student has fought against it through the court in the past.

After telling the Dean I was appealing his decision through the McMaster Tribunal of Student Appeals, he illegally withdrew money from my account to alter my transcript with courses I had never taken. He did this so he could offer me a degree I did not qualify for. He made it very clear this offer was contingent on me dropping any legal action against the University. I declined his bribe.

Currently, I am fighting the Dean of Students' decision in court against many of the school's lawyers with zero legal representation for myself. For a school that constantly advertises its commitment to equity and inclusion, the perverse irony of my experiences there is baffling. The Dean of Students has already curtailed my ability to represent myself by challenging my right to appeal through a Summary Dismissal based on lack of prima-facia. Fortunately, I won this first battle without representation. Now, the Dean's lawyers are using case law and human rights precedent through a motion of dismissal to close the case based on jurisdiction.

This brings me to where I am now, a year and a half into this legal battle. I need your help. I have been fighting through much of the legal costs with sheer heart and willpower, but I'm afraid my capabilities have reached their limits. All the funding I can gather here will be used to hire a human rights lawyer who can take my case and do something about it. Somehow, I still believe if I can hold McMaster legally accountable, change will come so no other student will be faced with this level of discrimination or experience such hardship in seeking justice for it.

For the sake of summarization, many of these details were simplified and missed. I have endless pages of legal documents that I am open to sharing if needed. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I hope you can help me bring accountability and justice to McMaster's door.

Kindly,

Tyler Henderson