Juno News - Pro-freedom activist BANNED from university over “unwelcome” conversation

00:00:00.000 A conservative activist in Ontario has been banned from Guelph University after what she

00:00:09.860 claims was an innocent conversation with some Middle Eastern women about the war in Iran.

00:00:15.420 Sarah Dotsert posted a video online claiming the university banned her merely for being

00:00:21.080 close to the conversation, not even engaging in it. Sarah Dotsert is a member of Unify Action,

00:00:28.140 of pro-family pro-freedom campus group she joins us now welcome sarah hi how are you i'm great thank

00:00:35.820 you um maybe you could talk about what happened that led the university of guelph to send you a

00:00:42.780 letter saying you were banned for life yeah yes it is it is really honestly the craziest experience

00:00:52.060 ever. I wouldn't believe it unless it had happened to me. So the reason that I am banned,

00:00:59.100 at least the reason that they're claiming that the trespass notice was even issued at all,

00:01:03.260 was not connected to my work at Unify Action. So we went to the University of Guelph one evening,

00:01:10.460 it was March 6th, and we go there just to attend a private religious function. So it's just like

00:01:19.460 private evening. I wanted to attend outside. Visitors were allowed to attend this function.

00:01:23.960 So I went, I had several members of my family with me. And so my father, he was supposed to

00:01:31.120 drop us off. And then there were two of my siblings with me. And we arrive early. We're

00:01:37.760 in our vehicle. We're eating our supper. It's 7 p.m. at night. And to our side, there is some

00:01:44.680 Middle Eastern girls who like they're going back and forth from their vehicle. I'm not sure what 0.99

00:01:49.220 they were doing at the time. And we're in our vehicle. It's like 20 minutes. We're eating our

00:01:53.180 supper and chatting. And then we're about to go in. So we get up, I leave the vehicle

00:01:57.520 and I'm walking away and I'm waiting for my siblings to kind of catch up for me. So I'm going

00:02:01.920 slow. And behind me, I hear my dad, the side door is open and the Middle Eastern girls are just 1.00

00:02:09.040 really close to us. So he kind of just leans, leans back. He's still in the driver's seat. He's 0.99

00:02:14.580 like not moved at all just leans back and says hey what do you guys think of the war in iran

00:02:19.960 and i know that could be a very triggering question um but not that you if you don't know

00:02:27.100 my dad you would think it was like a wild question to ask but my dad he he loves to talk to anyone he

00:02:32.560 will he'll have a conversation with anyone about anything and i know like he's said repeatedly

00:02:38.260 since this situation that he was simply trying to gauge their feeling and know what they thought

00:02:43.780 about the war because they must have had some feeling about it. And so that was his purpose

00:02:49.480 in asking the question. And they immediately, it was taken with hostility. So I stop when I hear

00:02:55.880 him ask the question, because I'm still waiting for my siblings to get out of the car. And I sit

00:03:00.980 there and I'm just standing there. I'm witnessing this. And so my siblings are standing there

00:03:05.680 between the vehicle. They're getting out. And the conversation continues. It's about one minute.

00:03:12.360 I don't think it really got too close to two minutes. So it wasn't a long conversation at all.

00:03:17.160 And my dad just asked them what they think of like all the people that are being unjustly,

00:03:23.800 having their lives ended in Iran and different things like that by the regime and just like

00:03:28.740 their thoughts on it. And I believe America, the topic of America was touched and the topic of

00:03:34.060 Trump, which is obviously a triggering subject. And that was all touched in that conversation.

00:03:39.620 it was very brief. And then the conversation ends with the one girl who was standing by the

00:03:45.300 driver's side saying, don't racially stereotype people to my father. So for this whole thing,

00:03:51.480 my siblings and I are completely silent. And one of the claims that I understand afterwards that

00:03:56.640 they have made is that they were being blocked from exiting their vehicle. Well, if you understand

00:04:04.200 that my brother, he was getting out of the vehicle at the time and he was just standing

00:04:09.780 there listening to the conversation. So of course he was standing beside the passenger side door

00:04:15.420 and they claimed that he was deliberately blocking them in, which is obviously not true. He was

00:04:20.620 getting out of the vehicle and he just stopped to listen to the conversation. So there's a lot of

00:04:25.120 claims. And, like, I understand them. I understand them for feeling offended and, I guess,

00:04:34.240 stereotyped. And I don't hold against them for reporting the conversation at all. I understand

00:04:39.860 that they probably took it very, very, like, it was a very racially stereotyping sort of thing,

00:04:46.960 that that's what they thought. They didn't understand my father or his reasons for even

00:04:51.720 talking to them. He just wanted to know their feelings on it. So what happens is my siblings

00:04:58.020 and I, the conversation ends and we walk away, we walk, we attend the function. And my dad drives

00:05:04.740 off and he would be doing some errands and then coming back to pick us up. So that's kind of how

00:05:12.900 like the whole thing that they're reporting. And we walk into the building and my siblings are with

00:05:18.980 me and they actually walk in after us. These girls follow us in and they take a picture of me 1.00

00:05:24.280 without my consent. And then I see them reporting us to the front desk. It looks like they're like 0.99

00:05:31.300 obviously flustered and think that there's been some sort of abuse. I assume that's what they

00:05:38.200 were saying. And they report us. And that's kind of the last I hear of it until I receive

00:05:43.380 the letter in the mail saying that my father and I are banned. And in the whole situation,

00:05:49.140 I did absolutely nothing. And I think they understand that I did nothing. And I didn't

00:05:54.240 say anything. And I didn't see any cause to interfere in any way. It was simply a conversation

00:06:00.520 that my father had. And I understand them for feeling offended. I do. I don't hold it against

00:06:08.200 them. And my beef is not with them, actually. My beef was with the university for banning me and

00:06:15.400 my father. My father is an alumni of the University of Guelph. So he attended there. And this is his

00:06:22.260 university. This is where he spent four years of his life. He got a crop science degree there.

00:06:27.400 And what he did with that degree, actually, he went to the war-torn country of Somalia

00:06:34.680 and risked his life, nine months of his life, he was in a war zone, basically, feeding the

00:06:41.560 impoverished people of Somalia because they had no food. So he spent his nine months of his life

00:06:47.940 and the culmination of his degree in Somalia, helping these people and serving them. And now

00:06:54.480 they're trying to make the claim that this man is Islamophobic and racist, which to me is outrageous.

00:07:00.680 and for my part I have close family friends who are also of the Muslim community and I love these

00:07:06.600 people so I I understand that they think that it was racist but I want them to understand that it

00:07:14.800 wasn't and that we really we still care about these people we love them and I honestly I want

00:07:22.180 the situation to be resolved so my beef is not with these girls at all my beef is with the

00:07:27.380 university campus for banning us but not only that banning us without even hearing our side

00:07:34.220 because if you just hear one side where there's obviously a misunderstanding then it just all

00:07:40.460 sounds horrible um if you were to hear the one side you think that it would be like this horrible

00:07:44.280 racist attack which it was not at all yeah so that's the story right i mean it speaks to the

00:07:52.380 huge cultural divide between our country and say a country like iran which has no free speech in

00:07:58.140 canada we do have free speech and we have a culture of being able to be open and free and

00:08:03.900 asking somebody's opinion about something so that's what we take for granted and they don't

00:08:09.740 have that over there the problem is they're over here and so maybe they're not used to that sort 0.66

00:08:15.020 of thing and you know people who come here from those types of countries that do not have free

00:08:20.220 speech they need to understand that they're in a place that does have free speech and i'm with you

00:08:25.340 on the university issue i mean they need to understand that canada has free speech and that

00:08:30.460 that campus supposedly is a space safe space for free expression obviously it's not i mean

00:08:39.660 as far as i'm concerned what did your father do that was so wrong except ask somebody an opinion

00:08:45.020 about something and by the way as far as blocking a car and like that is the police involved in this

00:08:50.860 at all i mean have they been asked to investigate this matter that's the wild thing i don't know

00:08:58.860 that they have so i believe it was only campus security that got involved and they sent the

00:09:05.660 notice of trespass to the guelph police um if charges had actually been laid and it had actually

00:09:14.540 been like a violent crime, then we would have known something. The police would have actually

00:09:18.080 done an investigation. At least that's my understanding of how our law and justice system

00:09:22.300 works, is that they would have looked at both sides and actually weighed the data and the

00:09:26.140 information. And I personally would love to know if there is footage, if there's like security

00:09:32.680 footage from that parking lot, because this is a parking lot, a visitor parking lot at the

00:09:36.420 University of Guelph. And if there is, then it would confirm our side of the story that there was

00:09:41.900 no seeking them out there was no chasing them there was no premeditated assaults and there

00:09:50.020 was no blocking their vehicle in yeah and I just think the whole story is incredible though and the

00:09:57.280 fact that the university is like they have they have not responded to my repeated request to be

00:10:03.920 like hey tell me what are the allegations against me what did I do specifically the only reason that

00:10:10.660 i'm banned and my other two siblings aren't is because my name was listed on the license plate

00:10:15.620 of our vehicle as a driver for insurance purposes and my siblings aren't listed on that because

00:10:20.820 they're just too young i think you have a human rights case here frankly i mean if they want to

00:10:25.220 have want to put this before a human rights tribunal you can i i think you have a case if

00:10:31.460 you want to go in that direction obviously that's entirely up to you but the idea that somehow you

00:10:36.020 You or your father would owe anybody an apology simply for asking somebody's opinion.

00:10:41.040 I mean, if that's going to be an issue in this country, we have no free speech left.

00:10:44.500 It's dead. It's over. Not only on campuses, but outside because of some of these laws that the liberal government are bringing in that are basically chilling, having a chilling effect on people's ability, long held.

00:11:02.400 treasured ability to simply have open and honest engagement with others. It's absolutely ridiculous. 0.79

00:11:12.880 And the fact that they're even suggesting that it's hate speech, when I reached out to the 0.83

00:11:19.200 security office there, the response that I got back was that it was the tone and intent of the

00:11:25.060 conversation that was unwelcome, not necessarily what was said. So it isn't even like specific

00:11:30.520 words that they're pinpointing here it was the tone and intent and yet the letter still says

00:11:35.720 that because of certain actions on march 6th that i'm banned um which honestly is ridiculous at this

00:11:43.080 point yeah what's your next move well i want to have a conversation with these girls i want to

00:11:49.800 understand where they're where they're coming from i want i want the breach to be healed i want them

00:11:54.360 them to understand our side, because I wish that they were open to the conversation, because I

00:12:01.580 would love to have that conversation. I want this wound to be healed, and I would love for the

00:12:06.140 university, without any further need for action, I would love for the university to remove these

00:12:11.960 trespass notices, because this is ridiculous. This is my father's university. This is my work

00:12:17.360 that they're impeding. And I just it's ridiculous. It really is. Well, I want to thank you for 0.94

00:12:26.220 speaking out because some people in your shoes might have just shrugged it off and moved it on

00:12:31.520 and nothing gets accomplished when people do that. You have to be public. You have to go public and

00:12:37.480 you have to raise these issues in the public square, which is really all that your father

00:12:42.880 was doing. If they didn't want to talk to him, all they had to do was say, I got nothing to say to

00:12:46.620 you, you know, go away, leave us alone. And that would have been the end of it. I know that

00:12:50.400 having been, we're having worked as a journalist for decades, you know, it happens all the time.

00:12:55.520 You want to talk to somebody and, you know, we can put a mic in front of somebody's face. You

00:13:00.560 can't force people to speak to you. You walk away and say, I'm not talking to you for whatever

00:13:04.440 reason. That's a freedom that we have. We have the freedom to ask people questions, to engage

00:13:09.580 with people. And they have the freedom to say, I don't want to engage with you. Thank you very

00:13:13.760 much goodbye and walk away. That's the way it works in Canada. And apparently the University

00:13:18.760 of Guelph doesn't understand that. But again, I want to thank you for coming on the show and

00:13:23.800 please stay in touch with us as this story progresses. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for

00:13:31.540 helping me spread the word because I think this does need to be talked about in the public square

00:13:35.360 for sure. And I do hope that the university listens to reason. I hope the director of security

00:13:40.980 there, listens to reason, and I hope that he removes these trespass notices. Yeah, that's my

00:13:47.480 hope right now. Sarah, appreciate it. Take care. Thank you. Our guest today is Juna News journalist

00:13:54.040 Clayton DeMain, who's been covering this story. Welcome to the show, Clayton. Thanks for having

00:13:59.840 me, Mark. I mean, so many of us saw the video of Sarah talking about how she'd been banned from the

00:14:06.980 University of Guelph. She was not a student there. She was there for another event, I believe a

00:14:12.460 Christian-related event at the university. And somehow there was an incident there in which

00:14:18.520 someone within, you know, maybe shouting distance of her, like her father, was involved and engaged

00:14:26.100 in some kind of conversation with people in a car next to her. And that, out of all that,

00:14:32.440 came this incredible action by the University of Guelph to ban her. What do you make of this?

00:14:37.880 Yeah, so talking to her, it sounds like it was, you know, like she even asked them to tell her

00:14:45.480 what she did wrong. And it seemed like it was just because she was in the same car, she got out of

00:14:51.400 the same car as that, you know, it was her father who struck up this conversation. She was, as she

00:14:58.600 said 10 feet away and her brother actually got out of the car and was holding the car door open

00:15:05.320 um because the conversation was interesting and so he he she says he's 16 he doesn't know what

00:15:12.440 he's doing and he's just kind of listening into the conversation but it kind of brings the question

00:15:17.720 of is it uh does it cross a line to ask somebody from a certain community about issues that are

00:15:25.960 pressing in their community, right? Like if a Nigerian Christian, you know, you're talking to

00:15:32.320 a Nigerian Christian, would it be appropriate to ask them about their thoughts on, you know,

00:15:37.120 the Nigerian government's lack of action or action of, you know, Islamic terrorism

00:15:43.900 threatening their community? Yeah, I mean, it shows a cultural difference here. When people

00:15:53.040 come to our country, they're not used to sort of the free and open discussion of issues that might

00:15:59.120 be deemed controversial in their country. My issue is with the University of Guelph,

00:16:05.460 which seems to side with the anti-free speech side. I mean, I can understand why Canadians 1.00

00:16:11.460 will feel perfectly free to ask somebody, well, what do you think of this? Or what do you think

00:16:16.560 of that? You know, you can always say, you know, pound sand, I got nothing to say to you.

00:16:20.800 if you don't want to talk to them. But somehow this escalated to the point where they went,

00:16:26.580 I guess, filed a complaint with the university who had this ham-fisted reaction. And I think

00:16:33.980 this also speaks to the level of anti-free speech sentiment amongst the zealots in the

00:16:40.860 administration, not only at Guelph, but at universities across the country, really. What

00:16:45.840 do you think? Yeah, absolutely. And as I noted in the article, the university actually has a

00:16:51.980 commitment to free expression, to uphold free expression. So I imagine if this became a charter

00:16:57.420 challenge, that will be brought up. I've seen other cases where that's like front and center is

00:17:04.980 what is the university's commitment to these rights that people have? And it just goes to

00:17:10.060 the question of should campuses be a place where free expression, even if that conversation

00:17:17.440 is unwelcomed, as the university put it to Sarah, should these conversations be allowed

00:17:24.780 even if they're challenging?

00:17:26.240 I mean, I can't imagine how many interviews I have done with people that I just put a

00:17:32.160 microphone in their face and ask them a question, which is basically the same thing here, you

00:17:38.060 just ask, except you're including a television camera there as well. This is just part of our

00:17:44.780 culture in Canada. People need to accept that when they come here, they're moving here, if there's 0.66

00:17:48.760 students here or temporary workers or whatever, they have to understand that they're not home

00:17:53.200 where there's a very different view of free speech. You know, you come to Canada, this is

00:17:58.640 supposed to be a free country where we value free expression. And yet they now felt that there was

00:18:05.200 such a climate in Canada that they would gain by speaking to the university and complaining

00:18:13.280 about the fact that somebody had asked them a question or engaged with them on an issue that

00:18:17.660 they didn't want to be engaged with. So, I mean, this has implications that are very bad news for

00:18:24.400 anybody in journalism, because, you know, as you know, we do that sort of thing all the time,

00:18:29.920 ask people what they think, and we don't even think twice about it. Well, here it is now,

00:18:34.580 somebody getting banned or canceled, however you want to phrase it,

00:18:38.740 simply for possibly engaging. And in fact, she's not even the one who did it.

00:18:43.140 She was just the one in proximity to somebody who did. It's crazy.

00:18:48.020 Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, as a journalist, I've been on campuses and asking questions

00:18:53.620 of people that might have been challenging. But one thing that stood out from Sarah Dotsert's

00:19:00.100 like, you know, testimony to me, um, was that the, the people involved are, they were on her

00:19:06.940 Instagram page. So you can look at the Instagram posts and actually see a comment from one of the

00:19:10.980 victims I tried to, or, you know, who says she's a victim of, of the father's conversation. Um,

00:19:17.680 I tried to, you know, like reach out to this person. They didn't, they didn't, uh, let me

00:19:22.800 follow them, which would allow me to, to ask them questions. So I would love to do that in the

00:19:27.360 future um one of the things was that they they thought it was offensive that he was asking about

00:19:32.960 iran when people were dying but you know i don't know if you've spoken to people but i've spoken

00:19:38.000 to people uh who are iranian who have different opinions on the iran conflict right like um

00:19:44.480 there's people dying from the regime from you know the millions of protesters who are in the

00:19:49.660 streets there was like 30 000 upwards of tens of thousands of of people who are killed by the

00:19:56.400 regime. So it's like a matter of which lives are you valuing here and what is too offensive to ask

00:20:05.200 about? Because it's not a monolith. Iranian people don't have, otherwise there wouldn't

00:20:10.380 be protests in the streets in Iran, right? Yeah. And I'm also wondering about some of 0.99

00:20:15.920 the bills that the federal government wants to ram through that are basically going to clamp down

00:20:22.260 those associated with hate speech, that kind of thing, that are going to make it even

00:20:26.940 more likely that people are going to be, going to maybe even end up charged simply for

00:20:34.640 asking a question or posting it online. It's just very, very troubling.

00:20:40.320 Clayton, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it.

00:20:42.920 Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

00:20:45.340 Clayton Domain, Juneau News. If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent

00:20:50.780 journalism by becoming a premier member of Juno News. Go to junonews.com backslash straight up.

00:20:58.280 You can find the link below. It helps us do what we do. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see

00:21:02.760 you next time.

Juno News - April 20, 2026

Pro-freedom activist BANNED from university over “unwelcome” conversation

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