By Jillian French – News Editor & Irma Susset – Editor-in-Chief

Content warning — mentions of racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and slurs

An investigation by The Campus has revealed new details about a Bishop’s sociology professor whose winter 2025 classes were reassigned after a CTV story alleged she said a homophobic slur multiple times in a sociology class in fall 2024. Upon meeting with students and faculty, The Campus discovered more about the context of Gosselin’s use of the slur, a student’s formal complaint, and how the university plans to make the complaint processes more accessible to students.

On January 15, an email was sent out to the student body on behalf of Principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier citing “a recent media article relating to inappropriate language in a classroom.” The email followed a CTV article published January 13, in which Cheryl Gosselin, a professor in the Bishop’s sociology department, is alleged to have used the f-slur in a first-year class and making offensive comments in another course she taught. 

Homophobic slurs in the classroom

Several students raised concerns about Gosselin’s alleged repeated use of the homophobic slur during a first-year Gender and Sociology course (SOC129) in the fall of 2024. 

Allister Coursol, first year sociology student, described how the slur was first used in the context of a class about gender-based bullying on November 12, 2024, where Gosselin referred to an article about disproportionate bullying targeting feminine boys. Coursol told The Campus that Gosselin used the slur when quoting the article, but then “kept asking questions, like ‘what does this mean, f-g”. They noted how uncomfortable it made the class: “She kept saying it, and no one was answering.”

Mia Deuter, first year modern languages student, shared the article Gosselin quoted, Joel Mittleman’s “Homophobic Bullying as Gender Policing: Population-Based Evidence,” published in 2022 in the journal Gender & Society. The particular section details the way young bullies “would never harass someone for being ‘gay,’ but only for being ‘a f-g.’” According to the students, Gosselin used the slur when quoting the text – the slur is uncensored in Mittleman’s article – but kept repeating it as she attempted to prompt further discussion.

 “There was a gasp,” said Aaliyah Wilburn, one of the students interviewed in the January 13 CTV article. Wilburn raised her hand to express her discomfort with the slur, but felt dismissed by Gosselin’s response. She says Gosselin told students who raised concerns that they were “shoot[ing] the messenger instead of the actual message”. Deuter and Coursol added that Gosselin told them that it was important to “destigmatize” this language. 

Deuter, Coursol and Wilburn also mentioned that Gosselin made comments in the fall Gender and Society class implying that hijab-wearing women judge white women for wearing revealing clothing, comments they felt were Islamophobic and inappropriate. This sentiment was echoed by Marie-May Lamothe in the CTV article.

When the CTV story was published, Gosselin had started teaching Sociology of the Body, (SOC219) and Quebec Society 1 (SOC102) for the Winter 2025 semester. On Tuesday, January 14 (one day after the CTV article was published) both classes were cancelled; Thursday, January 16, Gosselin taught both classes without acknowledging the article. The following week, the classes were taken over by Dr. Travis Smith (sports studies department) and Dr. David Webster (history department), according to several students registered in the courses.

Gosselin faces backlash

Wilburn wrote to the university’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) advisor the afternoon the incident took place, reporting the situation as ‘concerning’ and describing how several students were left with ‘feelings of discouragement’. Wilburn lodged a formal complaint with the university against Gosselin, but has not received recent information on whether it is still in process. Upon inquiry, Andrew Webster, Vice-Principal Academics and Research, could not comment on the status of the complaint. He added that he understands that it may be frustrating for students to feel like they are missing information, but “Quebec and Canada have real laws on privacy, and we can’t discuss or disclose information on confidential processes or private information… speaking generally, if a complaint is brought forward, there are very strict rules about who gets informed about it, including the outcome.”

Wilburn said that she submitted the complaint because it is her “duty to help create inclusive and safe space for students across board,” but added that she felt talking to CTV was also important to hold Gosselin publicly accountable. 

History and timeline of previous complaints

A sociology student described an incident in winter, 2023, in which Gosselin dismissed a student who raised concerns about the lack of Indigenous representation in first-year course Quebec Society. Markayza Mitchell, the student who raised concerns, told The Campus that Gosselin told her she shouldn’t be imposing her perspective on the rest of the class, and pointed to the door, telling her she could choose to leave. “I didn’t feel respected at all”, Mitchell added. She later dropped the class, a required first-year sociology course, which has impacted her ability to graduate this winter. 

When Leana Ceresoli started her mandate as Social Science Senator in May of 2024, a position filled by a student in the department who sits on the Senate and the BSR, she had been made aware of Gosselin’s controversy within the department by multiple students complaining informally about separate undisclosed incidents in Gosselin’s 2023 Quebec Society course. Ceresoli relayed these concerns to Roser Rise, serving as Student Representative Council Vice-President of Academic Affairs at the time. Rise says she worked with Webster to create a more clearly defined structure for formal complaints over the next few weeks. Ceresoli forwarded these resources to students who had complained informally, but they did not wish to pursue the formal complaint process, limiting the University’s ability to properly investigate the claims.

Ceresoli adds that Gosselin did apologize for the incident in a subsequent class. Despite her work as a TA for Gosselin’s fall 2024 Gender and Society course, where Gosselin allegedly said the f-slur repeatedly, Ceresoli was not in class at that time and says she was unaware of any use of slurs. She told The Campus that she was surprised that students had not told her about the incident. Although she understands the complaint process may feel “intimidating,” she encourages students to “please come and talk to your senators: we can’t do anything unless we know what’s going on.”

Bishop’s responds

The Campus met on Friday with Webster, who said the university is in the process of reviewing its policies, reiterating “that we really are committed to providing an inclusive, safe, respectful environment for everyone.” He also added that student complaints are taken “very seriously.”

Although he could not comment on Gosselin’s case specifically, The Campus asked Webster to elaborate on academic freedom policies at Bishop’s, which he says “is obviously a bedrock of universities” but also invites a difficult and complex conversation.

“You have to be able to study difficult concepts, and you have to be able to recognize that these difficult concepts involve issues that are highly charged and can be distressing,” he says. “The answer, of course, is not to say that these things cannot be discussed… the important thing to do is to ensure that the context in which they are discussed in the classroom is framed in an appropriate way.”

“The fundamental thing,” he adds, “is finding a way to teach it in a way that is both meaningful – and that does mean that it’s going to be challenging, you can’t get away from it – but at the same time, framing a subject in a way that is sensitive to the fact that some students will find it difficult.”

“None of that permits hate speech… but it does mean that you can’t impose pre-conditions in terms of what they [professors] are allowed to say within their area of expertise.”

 More information can be found in the Bishop’s University policy on academic freedom, the university statutes, and the collective agreement for faculty. The collective agreement says academic freedom is “the right to teach, investigate, speculate and publish without deference to

prescribed doctrine.”

What next?

In the principal’s email, he told students that “We will be pursuing a conversation in Senate… on ways to better communicate resources and processes available to students.” During the Senate meeting, Webster proposed that a link to university resources should be integrated into course syllabi to standardize communication and resource accessibility to students. The proposition quickly turned into a debate on professorial autonomy and administrative overreach in syllabi. Webster commented on the meeting: “Our established process at senate is to bring things always at least twice, if it’s a significant change – first time for discussion; second for decision.” He assured students that “in the time between now and the next senate meeting, the ASAP committee – Academic Standing Admissions Policy – is going to revisit it [the proposal] so that we can do some of the re-drafting… the intention is absolutely to bring this back.”

The Campus reached out to Gosselin, who did not respond to a request for comment. Upon inquiry, Webster added that “it’s my understanding that she has no wish to make any comment in response to queries on this issue, and she would prefer that she not be contacted any further.”

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This article was edited on Tuesday, Feb. 11 10:32 p.m. to include a description of the incident that occurred in Winter 2023.