(Harry Wade pictured here being handcuffed by the WSCS, provided by @westernsavages Instagram)
By: Alexandra Lakkotrypis
TORONTO – A student at Western University who disrespected the schools’ COVID-19 policies was carried out of a classroom by what campus police. Harry Wade identified himself after the video above went viral. Wade has not been vaccinated, and Western University requires anyone on campus to show proof of vaccination or vaccination exemption. If the exemption is approved, they must be tested twice a week. Western’s current vaccination rate is at 99% and they were one of the first post-secondary schools to require all on-campus students and visitors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Wade says he had received his first warning from Western on October 13th not to trespass on school property. When Wade did not comply or respond, he received more notices, to which he also did not reply. This led to his first on-campus arrest on November 10th by Western Special Constable Services (WSCS). Wade claims the arrest happened outside class, followed by the constables informing him he was trespassing and telling him to leave. Wade then told Global News, “I refused to do so because I was attending class, I had paid to be on campus and was merely trying to attend my class that day at that hour.”
The video above is the second arrest, which happened on November 11th and was posted to a popular Instagram account among Western students, called Western Savages. The video shows Wade, who is not wearing a mask, being handcuffed by the constables, and taken out of class. Wade had told Global News that prior to class, he had made sure the WSCS were not guarding it, but he claims 20 minutes into class his professor called the constables. “(The officers) asked if I would come out and I insisted they conduct themselves before the class,” Wade told Global News. “They told me that I’m under arrest and I said I wasn’t going to comply and they said, ‘Fine, we’ll have to cuff you here.’”
Another video was posted to Instagram earlier this week, showing Wade being carried by his arms and legs by WSCS officers out of class. Wade says he has now been expelled by the University and that this expulsion also pertains to every university in Ontario if the campuses decide to.
Wade told Western Gazette that after he was banned from campus on October 13th, he continued going to campus with a mask for two months. There were no issues until Fall Reading weeks when his consequences resulted in losing access to OWL. Saying, “I was honouring the mask mandate for the whole two months I was attending class,” Wade said. “But once the university decided to exclude me, … I decided I need to draw more attention to the issue by not wearing a mask in class.”
Western says students who don’t honour their policies are sent several notices to provide proof of vaccination or exemption for an “ample period of time.”. If students do not reply, they are put on leave and are unregistered from class along with a tuition refund. Students ae then warned not to trespass on university property, Western also told Global News they cannot speak on individual cases, but as of Friday, “28 students (of a total of about 37,000) have been placed on involuntary leave due to non-compliance.”
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