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Shortly after that class, Shepherd — who worked as an assistant under communications professor Nathan Rambukkana — was called into a meeting with him, Professor Herbert Pimlott and Adria Joel, manager of the university’s diversity and equity office.

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“At this session, all three lambasted Shepherd, viciously attacking her personally, falsely alleging there had been complaints … insisting that, in playing the TV Ontario clip, she had been threatening to her students,” the lawsuit alleged.

“The defendants created a toxic environment and made it unbearable for her,” said her lawyer Howard Levitt. “It astonishes me even months later. They are being hoisted on their own petards.

“I’ve practised labour law for 39 years and I have never seen anything like this.”

Rambukkana “ludicrously claimed that her showing the TV Ontario clip breached the Charter of Rights” and federal human rights code. . (and) was illegal,” the lawsuit alleged.

“Shepherd was accused of targeting ‘Trans Folks,’ even though Shepherd had chosen no side,” the lawsuit alleged.

“They continued to abuse her even after she began sobbing, as they accused her of causing harm to unnamed students. She pleaded, ‘I am stressed out because to me this is so wrong, so wrong,’ noting ‘the very spirit of the university is to challenge ideas you already have,’” the lawsuit alleged.

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Shepherd “had the foresight to tape her inquisition when it began and, after outrage from the public and alumni erupted, the University President Deborah MacLatchy, and Rambukkana, issued apologies,” the lawsuit alleged.