A TMU student was forcefully seized and handcuffed by TMU security at the Evan Solomon Democracy Forum event on Friday. In response to the incident, TMU’s Students for Justice in Palestine is holding a rally this Wednesday on Kerr Quad. The group’s demands, listed in an Instagram post, include the termination of the two security guards involved.
The student is one of eight people who disrupted the forum by interrupting the speakers, standing up, and making a statement, and were escorted out. After handcuffing the student, two TMU security guards took her to the Campus Planning and Facilities building, located at 111 Bond St., where she was held.
“This is just beyond crazy because you don’t expect school security [to treat students like this],” said a student and representative of the SJP, who spoke to OTR on the condition of anonymity due to concerns for their safety.
Many of the protesters, including the detained student, were calling on Solomon and the Canadian government to impose an arms embargo on Israel. Others were protesting the event’s focus on AI, citing the Israeli military’s use of AI in their attacks on Gaza.
The SJP representative witnessed the student being apprehended by security, managing to capture the incident on video (posted here with their permission).
In the video, two TMU security guards can be seen forcefully pushing a woman of small stature to the floor of the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, and she can be heard saying: “You’re hurting me,” and “I can’t breathe.” The person filming the video can be heard asking security what they are doing and to release the student.
In a statement shared with the TMU community, the university said the two security officers have been reassigned and that they “will not return to campus duties pending the outcome of [a] review.”
The TMSU condemned the security guards’ actions in an Instagram post.
“Toronto Metropolitan University belongs to students, and everyone deserves to feel safe on campus, including while exercising their democratic right to protest,” the statement reads.
In their initial statement for OTR, the university said that they were reviewing the matter, and that “the safety and security of our community remain a top priority. While incidents of this nature are rare, they are taken very seriously.”
On Friday, people gathered outside the Campus Planning and Facilities building, including the SJP representative, said it’s wasn’t clear why security detained the student.
“I’m not really sure why they body-slammed her. Some people [who disrupted the event] actually were even more aggressive and emotional than she was, and for some reason, they went for her,” said a Toronto Centre constituent who attended the event and who also spoke to OTR on the condition of anonymity.“
Initial reports from people gathered outside Campus Planning and Facilities were that the student was arrested by police. However, TPS media relations says there was no arrest made.
TPS media relations said officers were originally “called to assist with crowd control,” but were told they were “no longer needed” when they arrived.
The TMU Democracy Forum is a year-round series of talks that aims to engage political leaders from across Canada in dialogue about the most pressing issues facing Canadians today, according to their website. Toronto Centre MP Evan Solomon, who was appointed Canada’s first AI Minister in May, was invited to be the forum’s first guest for the fall season.
After the first couple of disruptions to the forum, Solomon asked attendees not to grow frustrated with the protesters.
“If we have some more interruptions, that’s part of our democracy right now, so let’s just be patient,” he said. “This is what democracy should be.”
The event took place in the Sears Atrium, located inside the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, and was co-hosted by Martin Regg Cohn, a political columnist for the Toronto Star, and Dr. Hossein Rahnama, a TMU professor focused on AI research.
Attendees inside the atrium said they could not see or hear this incident occur.
OTR reached out to TMU Security about the incident, but no one was available to comment at the time of publication.
This developing story was first published on Sept. 19 and has been updated (Sept. 23, 5:33 p.m.).
Janna Abbas is a Masters of Journalism student at TMU and a reporter for On The Record.
No AI tools were used in the production of this piece.
