Brandon University offers public apology

Brandon University is committed to a safe and inclusive campus. Everyone has the right to an existence free of sexual assault, violence, and harassment.

We have failed to live up to these ideals. We are sorry.

Brandon University has received the final report from the external investigation into incidents of harassment and sexual violence within our women’s soccer program. The report confirmed allegations raised by our student athletes and Brandon University accepts the findings of the report. We regret the length of time it has taken to complete this process, and that they were asked to relive their experiences.

To our student athletes: We are sorry, unreservedly, for what you endured while participating in our athletics program and since. We are sorry that harm was caused to you. We are also sorry for any of our public statements that have in any way called your integrity into question. To that end, we say unequivocally that we believe our athletes and we will aim to do better.

Brandon University will robustly address these issues, and we will work towards ensuring that student athletes do not have similar experiences in future. As well as addressing necessary personnel issues and reviewing our policies and processes, we will do a thorough review of our entire Athletics program. This review will be undertaken by a panel of three external experts with experience in university athletics programs, student support, and sexual violence within an athletics setting.

Brandon University is learning from this experience and we will continue to educate ourselves on best practices to protect our students from harassment and violence of any sort.

We can and will do better.

Source: Brandon University News