We, the ASFA executive and board of directors are writing this letter to sincerely apologize to Mei Ling—on behalf of any student involved in ASFA past or present—for creating a racially and sexually oppressive environment during her time in office.
Mei Ling experienced multiple levels of discrimination and harassment because ASFA has contributed to an unsafe environment, ruining her engagement with student life. Her integrity and self-esteem have been hurt due to ASFA which is unacceptable. We regret that these experiences deterred her from exploring other facets of student life at Concordia.
The Federation takes full responsibility for allowing these actions to happen and we will begin rectifying the situation by distancing ourselves from those who perpetuate a racist or sexist culture in our community. We will be providing consent, harm reduction, and anti-oppression trainings to all students and employees who hold a position of power within ASFA. We will be creating a task force on sexual violence and racism with a mandate to review the school’s sexual assault policies and to create awareness and educational campaigns around these issues. We will also ensure that the university administration treat this issue with the utmost importance and regret that they have not yet issued a public apology for the lack of support they provided her.
To Mei Ling: Because you have spoken up about your experiences you have given other survivors the courage to speak up about theirs. We would like to thank you for having the bravery that this took and for initiating culture change not only on our campus but on campuses across the province. We promise to continue reforming our spaces, processes, and attitudes to repair the damage created by systemic racism and sexism within the federation and the university and sincerely apologize to you for our past inaction.
Sincerely,
All members of the Arts and Science Student Federation of Associations
