Student arrested after Career Fair protest

Security guards at Fanshawe College used excessive brutality tactics, according to an arrested protester.

A student-organized protest turned sour at the Fanshawe College Career Fair that was held on Tuesday, February 13th on campus. Several students were expressing their displeasure regarding the participation of the Canadian Armed Forces, who had representatives informing interested students about the Army at a booth set up at the Career Fair.

President of Fanshawe's Social Justice Club, Darius Mirshahi, who was one of six or seven individuals who personally organized the protest at the Career Fair, was arrested after being asked by members of Fanshawe College Security services to leave the premises.

Mirshahi said he and several friends organized the protest in the spur of the moment, but had been displeased with the Armed Forces continuous presence on campus. The protesters were handing out flyers during the Career Fair highlighting their views and opinions on the current conflicts going on in the world.

Mirshahi said that Doug Millar, manager of the Career Services, had given the group permission to express their opinions at the Career Fair after having a conversation with him the day of the event.

“He (Doug Millar) said it was fine with me as long as you were not being disruptive, that is directly what he said,” Mirshahi said. “We were not blocking anyone, we let people freely pass around us to go to the recruiters and we were not obstructive. Doug said we could be here and make our statements and make our points heard as Fanshawe students.”

Emily Marcoccia, manager of Marketing and Communications at Fanshawe said that in a discussion she had with Millar, he said that permission was not granted to the students at any point.

“Doug (Millar) asked the student protestors to identify themselves at the Career Fair and subsequently asked them to leave,” Marcoccia said. “Saying that the students were given permission by Doug to be there, is simply not true.”

The College said that Millar called the Marketing department for advice on how to handle the situation on the day of the event and from there the Marketing department called security.

“The problem started when the protesters physically barred students from going to the Canadian Forces Recruitment booth, which in turn angered and offended several students,” Marcoccia said.

Marcoccia said the protesters were in violation of several policies and procedures that are implemented by the College, and being private property, Fanshawe has the right to remove individuals from any facility if they deem it necessary.

The protesters were at the Career Fair for some time, when a uniformed security officer from Fanshawe College approached their group and said that they had to leave. After Mirshahi and his group refused, the security officer said that they were going to get someone to remove them, according to Mirshahi.

Mirshahi said that Bob Clark, Security and Emergency Supervisor at the College, approached the group, without wearing a security uniform and without identifying himself as a security officer, and asked them to leave.

The College said that several witnesses reported that Bob Clark presented himself to the protesters as the head of security and that Clark was wearing a white supervisors security uniform and a visible identification tag was hanging from his neck.

Mirshahi said Clark told the group of protesters that someone was going to be made an example of, and asked them two more times to leave.

Mirshahi claims when he refused to leave, Clark grabbed him by the hands and arms and proceeded to physically force him out of the gym using excessive force while stating that he was under arrest.

“He grabs me from the back of my fucking shirt, starts like choking me. Choke, punch, choke, punch in the back of my head and pushing me forward to hold on to me, not knowing who this guy was,” Mirshahi said.

Mirshahi then proceeded to ask Clark to stop using unnecessary brutality tactics on him to which Clark responded by asking ‘you want to see brutality?' according to Mirshahi.

“He grabbed my fingers, bends them backwards about to where they are going to snap, looks me in the eyes and says ‘I'll show you brutality',” Mirshahi said.

After Mirshahi asked Clark, ‘why do you like to hurt people?' Clark then proceeded to stop the abuse to Mirshahi's fingers, Mirshahi said.

After being escorted to the Fanshawe College Security office, Mirshahi said the London Police Department were called and eventually drove Mirshahi to the police station where he was subsequently charged with trespassing, a provincial offence, and released.

The College said that they had not yet made a decision on actions that could be taken upon Mirshahi, including Student Code of Conduct violations.

Mirshahi said he does plan on fighting his charge and plans on pressing charges as well.

“The whole situation is completely ridiculous,” Mirshahi said. “I really want to take some legal action, and I will definitely charge him (Bob Clark) with assault.”

The College said that they had reviewed the entire situation and fully supports the actions taken by security.

“A number of people have confirmed that the actions taken by security were completely appropriate,” Marcoccia said. “You cannot allow for a potentially confrontational situation to lead to violence. Living in the post-911 world, you cannot allow potentially aggressive situations escalate, so in this case intervention was necessary.”

Marcoccia said the College is very upset about this incident.

“Everyone is upset abut this, no one is happy, we take no pleasure in taking sanctions on students,” Marcoccia said. “It should have been a good event highlighting students gaining job opportunities. It really takes away the focus of the event, I don't know if that was the groups intent but it is certainly what they did.”