Front Burner - McGill 'hazing' survivor reflects on St. Michael's sexual assault allegations

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Police are investigating alleged assaults and sexual assaults at St. Michael's College School, including one reportedly involving members of the football team holding down another student and sexually assaulting him with a broom handle. D'Arcy McKeown was the victim of a similar 'hazing' incident at McGill University. He speaks out about his experience.

Hey there, I'm David Common. If you're like me, there are things you love about living in the GTA and things that drive you absolutely crazy. Every day on This Is Toronto, we connect you to what matters most about life in the GTA, the news you gotta know, and the conversations your friends will be talking about. Whether you listen on a run through your neighbourhood or while sitting in the parking lot that is the 401, check out This Is Toronto, wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. Late last week, disturbing news broke about alleged assaults and sexual assaults at St. Michael's College School in Toronto. An elite Toronto high school is being rocked by a sexual assault investigation.

The act apparently videotaped and then exchanged. A stunning warning from police to erase any copies or face child pornography charges. Toronto Police, they're now investigating multiple incidents at the private boys' school. One of those incidents, it reportedly involved members of the football team. In a video, it reportedly shows a group of boys holding down another student and allegedly sexually assaulting him with what appears to be a broom handle. This video, it was reportedly shared on social media.

On Sunday, the school announced it would carry out an independent examination of its culture and its values. And as shocking as the story is, when I heard it, it was also really familiar. McGill University wants to know what really happened during the alleged hazing ritual. Back in 2005, something similar happened at McGill University when I was studying there. Darcy McEwen was an 18-year-old rookie football player at the time. And as part of an initiation, he was sexually assaulted with a broom handle. That incident, it also ignited a debate about assault, sexual assault, and hazing in sports.

Today, I'm going to talk with Darcy about what happened to him, and what, if anything, has changed since. I tried to be the voice of reason in the rookie locker room, just letting them know that there's no way that they'd be stupid enough to do that. I mean, they were smart enough to get into this university, so why would they think that that's okay? That's coming up on FrontBurner. Hi, I'm Darsen McEwen from Toronto, Ontario. I want to start in 2005 when you were 18, starting to attend McGill University and play for the football team. Why did you choose to go to McGill in the first place? You know, the university had a great reputation. They had actively recruited me along with some other schools and they, you know, really showed that they wanted me and how I'd fit in.

And, you know, there was a certain allure about playing on the same field as the Alouettes and was really excited to try to start my university career there. Can you tell me about the beginning of the season? What was it like being on the football team? It was definitely intimidating coming in because I'd never been in that type of university facility as a player. So you're walking through and there are all these varsity athletes and you're there about a week or two um before any of the other students are for training camp um so everyone there has a purpose you know the staff are all fully devoted to uh training camps and the players don't have to worry about classes they're the just there to get you know um to learn the plays to get the reps in

to get back into football mode. And mentally, maybe you feel that there's a bit of a bigger jump between your friends in high school and who you're playing with on the team there versus who you're playing with on the university level. Some postgrads could be close to 30 and you're 18. What was the dynamic like in those first few weeks? Was there anything that was happening there that made you feel uncomfortable as a rookie player? Yeah, coming in as a rookie, you had to earn your spot. And rookies, all new players were in separate locker rooms, you weren't allowed in the returning player or what would become the team locker room. what would become the team locker room.

We were singled out as rookies. People would say, rookie can wait, I need to get taped first and that kind of thing. So trying to shift us a bit more to being second class citizens. Did you feel like this was abnormal or in those first few weeks

are you just kind of going along with it thinking that this is just par for the course um i ignored it as long as i could um you know there were threats about initiation night and all these things blasting around and uh i i tried to be the voice of reason in the rookie locker room just letting them know that you know they're just uh running their mouths there's no way that they'd be stupid enough to do that, any of that type of stuff. I mean, they were smart enough to get into this university. So why would they think that that's okay? You know, so I kind of blew off until I got to a point where in between practices, when we're at the lunch, a couple of the veterans coursed two students into

simulating oral sex on each other. And after that point, I kind of just went, I'm done and would go out to eat on my own instead of team meals because I just that stuff was disgusting to me. And it was, you know, you're degrading these people and, you know, by trying to embarrass them. It didn't make any sense to me. Like, why? Why would you try a negative team building exercise? I use the term team building loosely here. When, you know, ultimately you need a cohesive team to do this, to succeed on the field. And it just didn't make any sense. Threats. When you say threats, what do you mean by that? So the threat going through training camp was that at initiation day, all rookies would have

a proctology exam with Dr. Broom. And some veterans would be carrying brooms around and things like that. And, you know, if you mess up on the field, missed your block or pissed off a veteran, they'd say, okay, that's another inch for Dr. Broom. You know, just kind of edging you on and keeping things going. And this is what some of the other rookie players were really worried about in the locker room that I kind of had to reassure them was unrealistic. You know, I, before I went to McGill, had worked for a CFL team and had gotten to know

some of the players and had talked to other people who played university football in Canada in the US and just they said, you know, no, there's no way they would ever do anything like that. That's stuff from the dark ages. So you just chalked a lot of this up to bravado. Yeah, to them trying to target us mentally, you know, trying to see everything up so that we're worried, we're panicked, and then, you know, thinking it's all going to be a joke. Like, haha, we got you guys. Let's go get a beer. Can you tell me a little bit about the night of August 27th, 2005. What was the plan for that night? So we weren't given much information. We were just told to hang around after dinner, in which case a couple of the veteran players and coaches left pretty promptly, as well as the staff.

We were told to strip off our shirts, line up, hold hands and walk down towards the athletic building from the cafeteria where we had had our team meal while they yelled homophobic slurs at us. What kind of things were they yelling at you? Things I'd rather not repeat, but basically just calling us different names for a homosexual person, which is the fact that they thought that that was an insult is a whole other side of things, or that they thought that calling someone that is degrading. It just shows how immature that group leading the team really was. So, you know, it just, it went from there and we were led into the squash courts.

We were told to hold the penny against our wall with our nose and told that every time it dropped, it would be another inch with Dr. Broom. We could hear people cheering and sounds from the squash court next door, and one by one, people were getting brought into the squash court where a lot of the veterans were on the floor and in the stands above. How many people do you think were watching at this time? Somewhere between 30 and 60. It being dark and there being kind of a spotlight down on us, it was hard to tell.

So as far as exact numbers, I can't comment on that. So you're standing in your underwear with a penny against the wall, holding the penny up with your nose. What happens? I'm turned around and, um, uh, thrown a dog toy that I was told to stuff into my mouth and pushed down onto all fours and then assaulted. With a broom? Yes.

And had you seen the broom before that or did this... There were people holding it when I turned around. It wasn't, you know, and considering the theme of that week had been proctology exams with Dr. Broom, you know, I wasn't surprised to see it. But I was surprised, as I mentioned before, that they would actually go through with it. So as you're down on the ground on all fours with a dog toy in your mouth and you're being assaulted with the end of a broom, what is going through your head? Shock that it's actually happening. You know, that this type of thing still went on.

That these people who I've been training with for weeks were doing this and thought that this was a part of team building. And, you know, anger and frustration and a whole bunch of other things. You know, I eventually got up, threw the chew toy somewhere into the crowd and went right home. And I had players try to stop me saying it was all a joke and come on and we'll stop it now no one else will have to go through it and um i was i found out later through the process that after i left they realized that they were in a jam and shut everything down and took the other guys out for drinks after. So, you know, they obviously knew this was wrong. And calling it an initiation or hazing is trying to use that as an umbrella term

to kind of lessen the impact of what people are actually doing these days under that guise of hazing. So after you left that night, uh, what, what happened? Um, after I left, I, I went back and, um, went back to the front, my friend's house who I was staying at. And, um, to be honest, felt very alone. And, you know, it wasn't until, uh, the next day that I ended up hearing from the head coach who asked me to come in and talk to him. And so the next day there I was walking by all these players who I felt were glaring at me and had to walk into the head coach's office, which was right in front of the locker rooms. and um you know he uh told me that you know uh he told them not to do this and uh they did it anyways and you know um i should feel free to come back and that didn't sit well with me so i

continued to um after i left the mcgill that day i ended up going uh leaving montreal and uh not because i i didn't feel safe there anymore left the McGill that day, I ended up leaving Montreal. Because I didn't feel safe there anymore. Why did you choose to go to the head coach about it and to eventually speak out about it more? You know, I think when something like this happens to a person, they need to choose how they want to carry it or not carry it, whether they just want to bury it and push it away, or whether they just want to deal with it privately or whether they want to deal with it publicly.

deal with it privately or whether they want to deal with it publicly. And what I wanted, um, to come out of this was as much as possible to prevent any future incidents of something like this happening again, or hazing in general. And the only way to do that was to talk to the coach and push the administration. Um, and it And it was actually, some reporters ended up figuring out who I was and the fact that I was on the roster beforehand and then not on the roster soon after that they maybe should reach out to me. So I ended up talking to them because, you know, the people already had known what happened. And so I was just telling my side of the story. So at McGill, were the police ever brought in to investigate what happened to you? I was told by the university that if I filed charges with the police, that they would immediately step away and not do anything.

It would all be handled by the police, which in my mind meant no policy change. And this systemic issue just remains intact at McGill. And so my choice was to where I felt I could make a bigger impact was by pushing the university and making them actually change the way things work there, rather than having perhaps a couple of students charged. And that would be that. I felt the bigger impact would be done if I could make the change at the university. And so I eventually filed a complaint with the university provost, which is basically kind of like the ombudsman. And they, the provost office launched a full investigation into it and ended up suspending players and eventually ended up canceling the football season.

So it wasn't until that point that I actually felt that things were changing and things were going. And as a result, the university administration at the time created a zero tolerance policy towards hazing. So meaning the entire season of that sports team would be canceled if there were any incidences of hazing. You're also, interestingly, an alumni of St. Michael's College. So you played on the football team there in high school. And I'm wondering, you know, having gone through all of this more than 10 years ago now, what was your reaction when you heard about the allegations of hazing and sexual assault at the school this week? the allegations of hazing and sexual assault at the school this week?

It was definitely a flood of different emotions, you know, partial shock, confusion, worry, a whole bunch of different things. Because interestingly enough for me, after I left McGill, I came back to Toronto and ended up helping out with the football team during the fall of 2005. And so St. Mike's was actually the place that I went to to get me over McGill, a place where I felt safe, a place where I at least never had personally experienced anything ever like this happening. And so that, that's where the real shock was. Um, and knowing them and knowing that they stood for, you know, I, I was on the senior team and from my understanding, this was related more to the junior team, but nonetheless, you know, looking at the whole football program, it was pretty shocking to find out that this went on. But from my time there, never heard of anything like this ever going on. I found it really interesting reading about what happened to you in 2005. I read a Globe and Mail

article, and it wasn't even classified as sexual assault. It was classified as hazing. People need to stop writing this off as, oh, you know, they're just kids messing around. Boys will be boys, whatever. Excuse, you know, these actions have the potential to damage someone long term. I'm wondering, you know, as somebody who's gone through this, if you could say something to the boy who was allegedly the victim in this case involving the broom, what might you say to him? Despite what it may feel like right now, you're not alone. There are more people than anyone cares to admit who have gone through these types of things. And,

um, this is your story. You get to choose how it plays out. You get to choose your journey. And, um, if there's any, uh, you know, I, I know what you've been through and if you ever need to talk them around. How has this affected your life? When I re-enrolled at U of T in 2006, you know, I wasn't able to have kind of the real or the typical, quote-unquote, typical university experience. I think it was a lot to handle. And one side effect for me was that I started feeling very uncomfortable in public.

I'd rather just be at my apartment or be on my own. And so I lost out on a lot of great social experiences that I could have had. But it was also U of T welcoming me and giving me a new home to go to. And, you know, ultimately, those factors were what made me feel comfortable to go back to playing football again. You were really at the center of this national conversation over 10 years ago. And yet, you know, here we are again. What do you think needs to change so that we don't end up in the same place 10 years from now. Yeah. To be honest, I think what needs to happen is that the governing bodies of the universities and the high schools need to put a bit of skin in the game. And whether

it's school-wide anti-bullying or anti-hazing, you know, education and seminars that is mandatory each year or what, that they need to, you know, really step in and do this and that there need to be penalties for the schools and universities where these things go on. And, you know, having spent time with them over the years, you know, I really hope that this is what St. Mike's does too, is that they change their policy. They're already strict policies to ensure this doesn't happen again. And I can't even imagine what these kids are going through because, to be honest, it sounds a bit tougher than mine. And, you know, they're younger, they wear video cameras and um it's at a place that they're supposed to feel safe Darcy thank you so much you're welcome

just a note to say that we reached out to McGill University on Sunday to see if they wanted to comment on their current policies around hazing. And they told us they just weren't able to get us a proper comment by the end of the day. The principal of St. Mike's, Greg Reeves, granted his first media interviews on Sunday. And here's some of what he had to say. Most of the students have terrific relationships with staff and faculty here. I'm going to let the police investigate to see how this turns out. And then we're going to have to do a deep dive right away into that to find out what is going on here and why is that. I mean, we have to do better. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson.

Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts. It's 2011 and the Arab Spring is raging. A lesbian activist in Syria starts a blog. She names it Gay Girl in Damascus. Am I crazy? Maybe. As her profile grows, so does the danger. The object of the email was, please read this while sitting down.

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