Conservative students condemn U of W’s BIPoC Lounge 

The University of Winnipeg’s Conservative student club has released a statement condemning the recently launched “BIPoC Lounge.”

Last week, True North reported on the University’s student association’s “dedicated space for Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour,” drawing ire from critics calling the concept racist and socially regressive. 

The BIPoC Lounge is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The University’s Campus Conservatives have since released a statement on various social media platforms, asking for the student association to “reconsider” their racially-segregated safe space. 

“As students at the University of Winnipeg, whose tuition helps fund the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, we are extremely concerned about the operation of what is essentially a racially segregated space on campus by our students’ union,” the group stated.

The policy has gone viral since being reported on, including questions about how it’s in compliance with Manitoba’s Human Rights Code.

The University of Winnipeg has cowardly distanced themselves from the student association, with administrative staff saying they merely lease out the university space, and aren’t responsible for what happens within it. 

The office of Manitoba Premier Wab Kniew did not respond to a request for comment before publication. 

Other institutions in Canada have their own ethnically-segregated spaces, including Trent University in Ontario’s “Freedom Lounge,” which effectively means ‘Freedom from White students.’