UNB investigates law student for alleged hate crime website
Last Updated: Friday, October 17, 2008 | 12:39 PM AT
CBC News
The University of New Brunswick is investigating an allegation that a law student on campus has spread hate literature online.
Shane Martinez said he filed a complaint with the university in March after he was assigned to work on a project with a student in his law class and did an online search of his name to get contact information.
Martinez said that was when he found website postings from the student that contained hate literature. One of the postings called for the genocide of people with mental disabilities. He said the website also targeted gay people, women and several minority groups.
"It was basically any kind of obscene material you could imagine targeting any and all groups, women, people of colour, religious groups and people with physical and mental disabilities," Martinez told CBC News on Friday.
Officials with the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton said the incident in question falls outside of its normal disciplinary code because it happened off campus during the student's own time.
However, a panel of inquiry was struck in early October to look into the complaint. Panel members were expected to make recommendations to the university's president in November on what action, if any, should be taken.
"What we are looking for is to get a sense of the allegations and determine some of the facts around what may or may not have happened and how they relate to the learning environment at UNB," said university spokesman Dan Tanaka.
The complaint has also led to a police investigation of public incitement of hatred but no charges have been laid.
The university has not taken disciplinary action against the student accused of spreading hate literature.
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