uOttawa student federation suspends club after sexual assault allegations

The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa says it has suspended one of its clubs after allegations of sexual assault came forward earlier this month in an anonymous email.

In a post on its website published Wednesday, the SFUO said it and the university's administration got an anonymous emailNov. 7 alleging a sexual assault happened in February "within" one of the clubs run by the federation.

The federation said it met with the university's administration Nov. 13 to talk about working together on the issue and was later made aware the university would be putting out a news release.

On Tuesday, a news release from the university said it has launched a third party investigation into alleged "misconduct" involving a student-run club that senior administrationbecame aware of throughan anonymous report on Nov. 11.

The SFUO said Wednesday the unnamed club in question will be suspended until further notice.

SFUO criticizes school

In the news release, the SFUO said the alleged "aggressor" in the incident, who is mentionedin the anonymous email, is a varsity athlete and "to our knowledge" the club in question is mostly made up of Gee-Gee varsity athletes.

The SFUO said they requested the university's news release make a link to the varsity athletes allegedly involved andit was "unfortunate" it didn't because they wanted this to be a collaborative process.

The university would only saythe club implicated "is independent of the University's Sports Services" department.

The student federation said it's also disappointed the university used "misconduct" instead of sexual assault in the release.

The school has said it won't comment further on the matter until the investigation is finished and they have no timeline for when that may be.

It declined comment on the SFUO's post when contacted by CBC News on Thursday.