Update: York University confirms that it has agreed to the dismissal of its action against Toronto Life in a settlement achieved in December 2013. A statement made to Excalibur by the University this week erred in omitting this information. The parties have now complied with their obligations under the settlement.
In the February 2014 issue of Toronto Life, the magazine published a clarification regarding their October article, “Fortress York.” York will no longer be pursuing legal action against the author and the publication.
“Regarding the article ‘Fortress York’ in the October issue, Toronto Life acknowledges that York University has gone to great lengths to make its campus as safe as possible,” reads the clarification.
“In addition, the magazine never meant to suggest that York is the only university in Toronto faced with the challenges of addressing violence against women,” it continues.
In October, York served a libel notice to Toronto Life and writer Katherine Laidlaw for an article that detailed the history of sexual assaults at York over the past 10 years and how the administration has responded to them. The article received backlash from York’s administration and the York Federation of Students for depicting York as a “hunting ground for sexual predators.”
President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri released a statement shortly after the article was published, saying it presented a “wholly distorted picture of women’s safety on the campus of York University.” “The article employs one out-of-context statistic to make sweeping and misleading generalizations that foster an atmosphere of fear in the York community and beyond, and cause undue reputational and other damages to the university,” Shoukri wrote.
He continued, “Distorting and misrepresenting facts may help to sell magazines, but it does nothing to address the serious issue of sexual violence.”
Laidlaw has declined to comment, and Sarah Fulford, Toronto Life’s editor, could not be reached.
Tamara Khandaker
Editor-in-Chief
