Minister mulls ban on initiations in Quebec HE institutions

Quebec’s Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry is considering banning initiations in colleges of general and professional teaching (CEGEPs) and universities, reports The Canadian Press.

On Tuesday 26 March, she was reacting to Radio-Canada’s revelations about the degrading initiations in the biology department of the Université de Sherbrooke last fall. Radio-Canada reported that students in the department had been doused with animal urine during initiations held at the end of August. Other students were encouraged to strip naked in public or forced to eat vomit during these activities.

During a press scrum at the National Assembly, the minister confided that she had difficulty reading the article, which “made her blood run cold” because the behaviour described was so “unacceptable”. Initiations are clearly defined, but “now, obviously, these frameworks are not being respected,” said Déry, who says she intends to discuss the matter with the establishments in the near future.
Full report on the CTV News site