Emotions were still running high in the
University of Ottawa
community on Saturday, the day after a
campus security lockdown
.
While the April 10 lockdown was lifted within a couple hours of its initial declaration and the Ottawa Police Service confirmed that no injuries were reported, the University of Ottawa Students’ Union complained that not everyone got the memo and the university should develop better safety protocols for times of crisis.
The alert was first issued by uOttawa at 5:18 p.m., warning students and staff of “a violent incident” on campus, through the university website and the SecureUO app that students were encouraged to download.
“It appears that notifications were only sent to members signed up for (the) SecureUO (app) and not all students,” a UOSU release said.
An official communication from University of Ottawa president and vice-chancellor Marie-Eve Sylvestre arrived by email hours after the lockout was lifted, at exactly midnight.
“Like you, I was relieved that no one was hurt and that the usual energy and vitality of our main campus had returned,” the email read.
In the email, Sylestre again encouraged students to download the SecureUO app and to enable mobile device notifications in case of similar emergencies. The app also has features like Friend Walk and Work Alone.
However, UOSU president Jack Coen said a better plan for communicating with all students was needed.
“Everyone these days has 100 apps on their phones, and no one wants to download a new one,” Coen said.
Coen, who was in the UOSU office with eight colleagues, said all of the information students received during the lockdown came from word of mouth or “random sources online”, adding that rumours about a gun had heightened students’ emotions.
“There was every possible version that came out,” Coen said of the rumours, adding that word of mouth was “not a sustainable solution to a crisis” for the university.
Yacine Brachemi was one of the students who did not have the app downloaded on their devices.
“I didn’t know there was an app, to be honest,” the first-year civil law student said Saturday.
Brachemi was on campus, studying on the fifth floor of the law library, when the lockdown happened. It was a productive time as he spent it working on assignments, but he wouldn’t have heard about the lockdown if not for others who were also at the library.
“They didn’t send us any emails,” he said. “We needed to go on the website.”
The Ottawa Police Service said Friday evening that a single suspect had been taken into custody on Waller Street, which borders the uOttawa campus, in connection with the “suspicious person investigation” that prompted the lockdown.
On Saturday, police said that the suspect had been in possession of a replica firearm and had been charged with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and mischief (preventing the lawful enjoyment of property).
The suspect was to appear make an initial court appearance on Saturday.
The investigation remains ongoing, a police news release said.
Despite the confirmation from police that the suspect had a replica gun, Coen said the surge of gun violence at North American schools over the past 25 years had been ingrained in the minds of people, especially those of his generation.
He pointed to recent shootings in academic settings, like the one at a high school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., as being at the forefront of students’ minds when incidents like these happened.
Just hours before the Friday lockdown in Ottawa, Coen said UOSU had released a statement in support of Lambton College in Sarnia, Ont., the scene of a campus bar shooting that left one person dead and two others injured.
Coen said that the fact that the shooting happened in the same province at another school with another student association the same morning played into the chaos uOttawa students felt on Friday evening.
“It’s such a relief that no one was injured or killed (in Ottawa),” he said.
