On Dec. 11, a member of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) alleges security officers forcibly detained her in the McConnell Engineering Building for taking a picture of armed agents there. Reportedly, the member has yet to receive communication from McGill about recourse.
In a written statement to The Tribune, the AGSEM member, Asa Kohn, explained that she has a job with the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), with a scope that includes addressing the increased presence of security officers on McGill campus. When she saw two private security guards in McConnell that afternoon, she snapped photos of them to show her colleagues. One of the guards then approached Kohn, yelling at her to delete the images while placing his hand on his weapon.
“I tried to leave, but he grabbed my arm, dragged me to the wall by the door of the porter’s office, and forcibly held me there,” Kohn wrote. “He continued to yell, sometimes in English but mostly in French even when I told him I don’t speak French. He demanded several times that I delete my photos, give him my camera, and stop recording him. He threatened to break my camera and said that he had a gun.”
Kohn reported that a man identifying himself as the building porter then arrived and pushed her to the side to access his office door. When she tried to record this incident, explaining her reasons for photographing and asking what law or McGill policy she was violating by doing so, neither the porter nor guard responded.
Kohn explained that McGill security guards then arrived to prevent her from leaving McConnell, even after the private security guard had released her. According to Kohn, the guards also told bystanders to “back off” while they detained her for approximately 50 minutes.
“When the police finally showed up, they immediately told me that I hadn’t broken the law and was free to go,” Kohn wrote.
In a written statement, the McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) claimed that the events of Dec. 11 provoked external security involvement.
“The initial incident did not involve McGill Security agents,” the MRO wrote to The Tribune. “As we understand, it relates to an individual recording the movements of a couple of armoured truck guards. We understand that [the guards] had safety concerns about being filmed, so they contacted the Montreal police for assistance [….] That puts into motion McGill protocols that focus on avoiding escalation and waiting for police to arrive to determine if they think a crime was committed.”
The MRO also commented on McGill security’s role in the events at McConnell.
“The work of Campus Security was complicated by the intervention of other community members who, despite what one assumes were good intentions, fuelled tense exchanges,” the MRO wrote.
Kohn expressed that the hostile behaviour she alleges experiencing from security on Dec. 11 has occurred multiple times since she began documenting their campus presence in Summer 2024, with security “arbitrarily” demanding her student ID and addressing her by her name when encountering her on campus.
“This sort of intimidation might be expected from a body designed to impose order on behalf of McGill,” Kohn wrote. “What is more disheartening is that other parts of the university have not helped me.”
Kohn also alleged that McGill “has done nothing to rectify the situation,” since she filed an internal complaint with McGill Security Services eight weeks ago, but has not received a response. She also submitted a request for information with the SPVM on Dec. 16.
SSMU Vice-President University Affairs Abe Berglas confirmed Kohn’s difficulties accessing support from McGill in a written statement to The Tribune, reporting that they met with a representative from Campus Public Safety a week after Kohn’s alleged assault.
“[The representative] couldn’t tell me what Asa had done wrong for the security guard to grab her,” Berglas wrote. “I asked him what he would do about it, and he said that without a formal complaint, he would not take any action.”
In their statement about the events of Dec. 11, AGSEM affirmed the need to seek non-administrative support at McGill in situations like Kohn’s.
“There are ways we can look out for each other on an individual level,” the union wrote. “Bystanders on [Dec. 11] prevented worse abuse of the staff member. Their presence provided accountability.”
