Officials with Wilfrid Laurier University suggested Tuesday that information made public about the Veritas Café closure has not represented a full telling of what happened – and then declined to offer any information that would change that situation.
Up until its closure, Veritas Café operated at the school’s Waterloo campus. It was not owned by the school itself, but by the Wilfrid Laurier Graduate Students’ Association.
The student association informed café operator Sandor Dosman last week that they were terminating his contract.
They cited an issue with a help wanted he had posted online which had included a large number of parenthetical references and tongue-in-cheek jokes.
Since the story came to light, the line in the ad which has received the most attention has been its first one, which reads “I need a new slave (full time staff member to boss (mentor) around at Veritas Café.”
After initially maintaining that the ad was the only reason for Dosman’s dismissal, the GSA suggested Monday that there may be more to the story – saying that “we would not sever the relationship without there having been clear opportunities for training, education, and personal growth throughout the duration of the contract.”
Tuesday, school officials released another statement on the issue.
“The information that has been publicized – and which has elicited emotional comment – is not a complete and balanced story,” the statement reads.
Dosman has said that he never had any issues with the GSA before last week.
The statement also denounces “the fierce hostility and threats directed at the (GSA) and its elected student leaders over the issue.”
The GSA, likewise, has said that its leaders have received “direct personal threats” since news of the café’s closure broke.
A search of Twitter messages directed to the group’s president – who has since taken down her account – includes one calling her “a disgusting, terrible human.”
“You are out to lunch – vindictive – untrustworthy (and) what’s wrong with Canada,” reads another.
Not all reaction to the café’s closure has been negative.
A handful of comments have backed the GSA’s decision, including those of Laurier grad Ese Mrabure-Ajufo, who now plays in the Canadian Football League.
In a letter to Laurier campus paper The Cord, Mrabure-Ajufo said that he understood a lot of people consider themselves able to “take a joke,” but he himself did not see slavery as a laughing matter.
“If you have a problem with (Dosman) losing his job because you fail to see what he did was wrong, you are part of the problem, plain and simple,” he wrote.
“Come on man, you need to be a professional. You cannot make grey area/borderline funny or borderline offensive jokes like that publicly and expect anything less than termination.”
With reporting by Abigail Bimman
