The details of this occurrence and the quotations are cited from CBC.
A recent article released by CBC exposes a serial voyeur on the UBCO campus and the lack of support being offered by the Kelowna RCMP.
A student, known in the article by the alias Taylor, discusses an occurrence that dates back to March 10, 2020 during the pre-pandemic university days. She was in a co-ed stall in the Commons Building when she noticed an iPhone camera peering up at her from under the next stall. The student stated she yelled out, rushed out of her stall and demanded the person come out.
At this point, Taylor was joined by her friend when the man came out of the stall claiming he "had no idea" what Taylor was talking about. He offered Taylor his phone only to find the camera roll and the recently deleted folder empty.
Following this confrontation, Taylor went to the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office (SVPRO) for advice. Taylor and another friend recognized the man soon after and called campus security, who soon involved the Kelowna RCMP on March 13, 2020.
Throughout her meeting with the Kelowna RCMP, specifically an officer named Const. Ryan Routley, Taylor addresses the lack of support displayed by the officer when she wished to press charges. Taylor was told that she would have no issue pressing charges as her statement was strong.
However, Taylor said "And then he sort of laughed and said, 'Oh, well, he's, you know, he's never going to get a job.'" The officer was obviously prioritizing the man's future over the Taylor’s wellbeing. She described going to her car after and crying.
Weeks later, Taylor was told the man confessed to filming her. Despite this confession, the RCMP officer still attempted to dissuade Taylor of her decision, stating it will ruin the man's life.
"[Routley] mentioned having good values, like family values. He was sort of implying he's been brought up the right way, mentioned that he had a girlfriend, that he was an engineering student with a co-op.... He kept sort of reiterating he will never get a job," said Taylor.
Routley continued to say the man likely just filmed "for the thrill of it and getting away with it," and told Taylor he does not seem like the kind of man to reoffend. She agreed not to press charges after all.
Eventually, the details of this case got back to UBCO deputy vice-chancellor Deborah Buszard who sent a letter to the RCMP on May 4, asking them to revisit the case.
The morning of May 11, 2020, two months after the bathroom encounter and a week after Buszard’s letter, Taylor received an email from a different RCMP officer - Cpl. Tania Carroll. During their conversation, Carroll said she did not care about factors like the suspect's relationship status or engineering credentials.
Carroll told her Routley had noted on the suspect's file that he had confessed to filming women on campus "five or six times" before.
To this, Taylor told CBC, "I did feel anger because I literally was laying awake for weeks thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm going to ruin this person's future. I'm ruining someone's life.” She mentioned that had she known there were multiple victims, she would not have hesitated to press charges.
On May 14, 2020 Taylor decided she wanted to go forward with pressing charges. According to CBC, “the RCMP sent their investigation report to Crown counsel earlier this month”.
Throughout this entire investigation, Routley’s actions were entirely inappropriate and unprofessional. This officer made Taylor feel guilty for potentially ruining a man's life despite his criminal behaviour, and he let his personal empathy towards the man dictate the decisions he made without any regard for the lasting impact on the victim. As an RCMP officer, his primary responsibility is to maintain the safety of Kelowna residents, but he has terribly failed in this regard.
As of August 18, 2020, an anonymous UBCO confession stated, “I was filmed under the stall in commons gender neutral washroom. I filed a police report as well as a UBCO sexual misconduct report. He admitted to doing it to 6+ other people to police at UBCO but nothing has happened to him. I guess I just assumed he would be automatically expelled?”
It is unknown if this male UBCO student has been met with appropriate consequences from the university at this time. Upon reaching out to UBCO regarding this confession, they responded, “For privacy reasons, UBC does not comment on specific cases but all reports of misconduct are taken seriously by the university.” Let us hope they do take these allegations seriously.
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