The Ben Mulroney Show - Why the University of Guelph banned a girl from campus for life

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

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This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Always read the invitation. I was supposed to go to an event after work yesterday, and I didn't read the invitation. Had I read the invitation, I would have realized that elevated casual, which is a thing, apparently, was what I was supposed to be wearing. I was not wearing that yesterday. I looked like I had just rolled out of bed. So I had to tell my friend, I'm sorry, I can't come to your event, and I ended up having some tacos. But then I told him,

do not tell my siblings, because I will never live this down. I'm already dealing with a voice in my head that sounds just like my dad saying, Ben, you didn't go because you looked like a slob. Come on. You're better than that. I was very disappointed myself.

It'll never happen again. But if my, he's, he told me years ago, he's like, anytime you're in your car, I want you to imagine, just look in your rear view mirror, that's where I'm sitting. That's where I'm sitting. And sure enough, every time I get in my car and I look in the rearview mirror, that's where my dad is. He also has, lives rent free in my head telling me to tuck in my shirt.

And if you were around, you'd be listening to this show each and every day with a whole lot of advice. Hopefully, he would like what we're doing. But sure enough, sometimes he would, he would not, but that's okay. That's okay. He would be listening. All right, I want to tell you a story.

When I was in university, I went out to dinner with my best friend who eventually became my roommate. And we were well-educated morons. And we got it in our heads upon seeing a stop sign on the street that we would steal that stop sign, which we did. And we took it back to our dorm room. We got caught on camera. and we were chased around campus by the campus police.

And eventually we were hauled into the dean's office who told us that we could have been brought up on charges from the city, but they didn't care to do that. And I was put on what amounted to double secret probation. My friend, however, slept in and forgot to show up. And he was suspended for a week. Eventually, a friend of ours did that plus more. he was doing uh he created a a big problem on campus with um by by crashing into a building he got kicked out of school and so the question today is what do you have to do to get banned from a college

campus well our next guest knows the answer to it but when she reveals it uh you're going to be shaking your head as please welcome sarah to the show sarah thank you so much for being here hi how are you well i'm i'm uh i'm having an eventful day due to the story of you receiving a letter from the University of Guelph and let's listen to a little bit of the video that you posted. Scott banned from the University of Guelph for life. No joke. As a result of your actions on March 6, 2026, this letter serves as a notice of trespass. You are therefore prohibited from entering all University of Guelph properties. This prohibition is in effect for an indefinite period from the date of this letter. What did I do to get banned from Guelph for life? Okay, so if you asked the question, so please answer it for us,

what do you have to do to get banned from the University of Guelph? Well, apparently nothing. You don't have to do anything to get banned. This is the weirdest experience. So I'll just run through what happened. The way I saw it, I was pretty much just a witness to this. And for being a witness, I am banned. So on March 6th, we arrive at the University of Guelph to attend a private religious function.

This would be me and three other members of my family, my father, and then two other, my siblings. And we arrived. I'm on the campus. We're just sitting in our vehicle, and we're eating our supper there. We're in there for about 20 minutes. And we're talking, my family and I, we love to talk and joke. We're, like, really close. So we're having, like, maybe someone was able to hear us from the outside of the vehicle.

I don't know, but we were in there and we were having a good time. And then we get out to walk into the building. My dad's just dropping us off and he would go and do some errands. So I step out of the vehicle and beside us, there are some Middle Eastern girls that are just, they're in their vehicle. I'm not sure what they're doing. I do whenever then they had gone back and forth from their vehicle. and I just step out of the vehicle and I start to walk away. He's incredulous.

Because what do you say? What did he even say? What did he even say? Well, his exact words to open the conversation were, excuse me, what do you guys think about the war in Iran? He just leans back and just says, hey, what do you think about the war in Iran? And they need to be taken with racial profiling. And after the fact, he just, he says that he was just, he wanted to gauge their opinion. He wanted to know, generally wanted to know.

Can I ask you? How old, how old's your dad? He's, well, I guess you could say retirement age. He's like about 60. Okay. So, like, listen, let's just call a spade a spade of spade. 12-year-olds are, I've got 15-year-olds, and they're like from a different planet. And if you look in the other direction, the silver generation have different social mores, right? And I'm sparking up a conversation with a stranger.

is fine for one person and for others, they view it as aggressive. And it could be just as simple as that here. Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. His whole goal was just trying to strike up a conversation. And as a result, I took it as verbal abuse and harassment. Yeah. Yeah.

So we've got really two sets of one scenario, two truths. Two truths, if you will, if you want to use the nomenclature of our time. But the university hears one side because these women go to the university and they say, this is what happened. And from what I understand, there's no video proof, there's no audio proof, there's nothing. There's just two different versions of one event. And the university, in their learned opinion, after hearing one side, of what could be an explosive story, just took it at face value.

That's what they did. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? No, that's exactly what they did. Okay. They didn't reach out to you. They didn't call you. They didn't find you on social media. They didn't reach out to your dad, who is an alumnus, who is probably on a bunch of mailing list, because I'm sure they've asked him for money over the years.

Yeah, probably. Right. So he's banned too. Yep. Okay. So what happened to? to your father. This must have been a gut punch to him. Here's this, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I want to put it in sort of casual terms.

Here's this merry old man who just wants to talk to people and spark up conversation. And this happens. And this happens. And he has tried and convicted and branded this thing by virtue of the judgment of the university, a university that he went to. So that must hurt. Yeah. No. I think he's taking it probably, yeah, better than me, honestly.

Yeah. But, like, the crazy part of the story is my dad took a crop science degree from that university. And what he did with that degree was he went to Somalia and helped feed serving Somalian Muslims during the Somali Civil War in the 90s. He spent his nine months of his life serving those people, risking his life for those people. And now they're telling me this man is Islamophobic and racist? Yeah. I don't think so. No, well, they also accused him, because I know a little bit about the law.

They accused him of a forcible confinement when they said they prevented her from getting out of her car. That is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. I assume that they filed a police report. I also, yeah, no, of course. I'm saying that facetiously. But Sarah, I also find, and again, just I find it curious that a group of people of a certain age were in one of these flashpoint moments, as they said, not one of them whipped out their phone. Not one of them. Yeah.

That is standard operating procedure if you're under 21 years old. As soon as you see something or you feel triggered or you feel attacked, you whip out your phone. And the fact that it didn't happen by one of those people, I just find it a little curious. But don't you find it weird that the school knowing that this was going to be a, I had to know that this was going to be a thing. They didn't say, well, we got to cover our, cover our, we got to follow due process here. We've got to follow the protocol. And they just decided it was done. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So what are you going to do next? Well, my hope is to, I want to have a conversation with these girls. I want to explain where we came from and I want to understand where they came from. I want to help heal the breach because my beef is not with them at all. They had every right to complain. They had every right to make a file report.

That was their right in a free country. They had every right to. Yeah. But my thesis was university because they have unjustly banned me from a university. And I do, I do campus work. I'm basically a conservative political activist. Yeah. So I'll do work with students.

So they're repeating me and doing my work there. Yeah. Well, Sarah, we're going to take a quick break here. I've got so much more to get to. and I really want to drill down on this and where we go from here and what the university can do to make it right. So don't go anywhere. Much more to come with Sarah right here on the Ben Mulroney Show.

In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and investment. Information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

I'm speaking with Sarah, who found herself banned from the University of Guelph for, as she says, being in proximity to a conversation. I mean, that's a high crime and misdemeanor as far as I'm concerned, Sarah. But this is serious stuff here. You know, your dad entered into a conversation with some young women who either wanted to talk

or didn't want to talk. It was probably their right to walk away and they didn't. And later on they said it was an unwelcome conversation. And that in the eyes of the university was enough to ban you. You put out your video and some of the people involved pushed back saying, I'm one of the girls who were harassed. Harassment, by the way, is a legal term. And it's important to know that.

They're very confident in using words that I don't. know that they necessarily know what they mean. They say you were not 10 feet away and unaware. You were laughing with another girl while another man was standing outside my door. So do you take issue with with that assessment that you weren't 10 feet away and that you were snickering as this was happening? I do take a huge issue with that. That is not at all what happened. I walked out of the vehicle and I was in front of the vehicle in front of us or beside it anyway. So I was at least 10 feet away from both parties. and I was not laughing, I was not sickening, I was listening to the conversation, and I was

bewildered by the response, especially on these goalsides, and I don't take issue with them being offended. They have every right to be offended, but I do take issue with them telling an untrue narrative. Well, there are also, here's another quote from their thing, and they use quotes here, which means they are, they're saying this is exactly what was said. We directly said, quote, why are you asking us that? And you don't need to be asking us that. Despite that, he continued and made racist remarks about immigrants and people coming to the West.

I got to ask you what you think about that. Yeah, that is the slight truth, but not quite. So I do remember them saying why you would ask that question. I do remember that. But I don't remember them ever saying, stop, don't talk to us. Yeah, but you can also be, yeah. No, like I said, if you don't like talking to somebody, you can walk away. And so I'm a little unclear as to, how long did this interaction take place before?

Oh, it was a minute, maybe two minutes. It was two minutes. This was a two minute interaction. Okay. Look, I don't know, I don't want to be a cynic. I don't want to be a cynic here. But I think it's great because, you know, you've made a brand. Unify Canada is this group that you work with where you go on to college campuses and you engage in conversation.

what I've seen of your content, I like. I think it's not nearly what people would assume it would be. Oh, a conservative goes on campus. It's got to be like that guy or it's got to be like that thing that I saw. But it's actually rather positive and constructive. And also within your rights. But they said here, let's say it wasn't about differing opinions. They said you all suicidal, they call it racial profiling.

we were born and raised in Canada, yet you and your racist, nationalistic followers jump to conclusions because of how uneducated you are. I don't know that you're going to be able to bridge this gap with these particular women. Yeah, and I want to, though. Yeah. No, I appreciate.

I won't listen to my side. Yeah. Tell our listeners what Unify Canada is. Yeah, so we've actually rebranded to Unify Action. Okay. So we are a youth political activism, conservative organization. So our goal is to help students on campuses promote the values of limited government, free speech, and free markets, and individual liberty.

So we provide them with the resources, we provide them with speakers and different things like that. And we just kind of draw the students together and empower them to have the conversations with their peers because these are important conversations. These students feel isolated and alone because they don't know each other. So our goal is to bring them together and kind of have those conversations. Yeah, and the reason I wasn't focusing too much on that aspect is because you weren't on the University of Guelph campus in that capacity. You told me, yeah, you were there for a religious event, a private religious event. Yeah. Yeah.

And so to me, that has nothing to do with this. However, you know, you are somebody who doesn't shy away from conversation. Maybe you got that from your dad. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. But there has to be, have you talked to a lawyer? Because these are public institutions.

They are paid for, in large part, with our tax dollars. This is something that should not go away. Yeah. So we have been in conversations. I'm not saying what could happen or what will happen. I do know that we have a good case against the university because the university is claiming that this is private property. But the trouble is like this is like it's a gray area.

This is a governmental action by the university, which could fall under the public narrative, which would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedom. So whatever happens, whatever action we take, I mean, I can't say what we'll do. I really don't want to comment too much as we're thinking of doing. No, absolutely.

Just for our listeners' sake, we reached out to the University of Guelph and we have not gotten a comment as of yet. I mean, I have to imagine they're scrambling right now. They were hoping this, they were going to scare you away and that was going to be that. But, you know, as somebody who debates, as I went to university, this is where, that's where you learn. That's where you collide with ideas that make you uncomfortable. How do you feel that this amorphous sort of non-concept of an unwelcome conversation has taken root to such a degree that it, it,

Someone like you kicked off of the campus forever. Yeah, I think this is a really dangerous thing. It needs to be brought to light. It needs to be exposed because if we shut down freedom of speech, we shut down like that marketplace of ideas. And all innovation, all freedom just disintegrates after that because we need to have these conversations. We need to be able to talk.

And even if sometimes I talk to people who are in opinions I find offensive. But I don't ban them. I listen to them and I share my side as well. That's part of democracy. A democracy is people colliding and understanding and working together despite their differences. Yeah. It's a dangerous precedent. But the precedent was already set, Sarah, when we sort of tacitly and irresponsibly allowed people to believe that there is this right to not be offended.

Yeah. And if in all places, in my humble opinion, the one place where everybody should expect to be offended is college and college campuses. That's where you learn. Talk to me about the work you do. What have your interactions been like on college campuses? I have to believe that there are people who see you and just assume you're going to be one way and just try to get you banned from that campus. Yeah, I would actually, so you mentioned that things. I would stand from the Queens campus as well, which I have not heard anything of,

but there was a situation there, which is very stereotypical of some of the people that really don't like my opinion. So I was approached on the University of Guelph. I was out there. I was on a public road. This is not university property, but I was approached by a young student. And he comes up, labels me like a Charlie Kirk, and then tells me that I must be a racist and a fascist for that support. Yeah, of course. for that support of his, like, even that modeling of what he did.

And I was able to actually de-escalate the situation because he was quite emotional like he came up. But I was able to be escalated and explain my opinion. And the conversation ended there with him going, oh, it's no fun when you guys don't fight back. It seems like a war between fact and feeling, between reason and emotion. And you would think that dispassionate reason would win the day because emotion flare. out, but it's not. It's, it's, it's been entrenched into institution. And that is disheartening. I mean, I suppose, Sarah, the silver lining here is you're drawing attention to your organization.

And it's just a coincidence that free speech is at the heart of this, this controversy, but also what fuels your organization. Sarah, I'm really sorry that this has happened to you. You're absolutely right. Those women had every right to seek redress. I think this is on the university to answer for their deeds or misdeeds if that's proven. But I do hope as more information comes out, you'll come back here and give us updates. Yeah, yeah. And if we do a case against them, we'll see if we have the fun to do that.

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