A former Concordia student has filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission alleging she was sexually harassed by a professor in 2008 and the university did nothing about her complaints.
"I was disgusted but I didn't know what to do," said "Alya" whose identity is being protected in case of professional repercussions.
She is talking about the emails she claims her philosophy professor sent to her at the time.
"Sometimes at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning, I'd wake up to them and they'd talk about getting me to drink or slipping alcohol into my drinks," said Alya, who didn't drink.
She said the emails were persistent and included invitations to meet the teacher off-campus at bars and concerts: "You could always start with a nice light drink like Red Wine or a Cooler and branch out from there! Then we could go dancing!!", said one email.
Another email said "Hi "Alya", (hug and kiss!), why did I say that?!"
Alya said she tried complaining to the department.
"The way that I was treated by the department was to pooh-pooh the situation and ignore me," she said in an interview with CJAD 800 News.
Alya said her complaints to the ombudsman and various other Concordia officials up until 2015 appeared to fall on deaf ears and that she felt she wasn't being taken seriously.
"It's exhausting, it's really anxiety-inducing. You want to leave it behind you but you have to constantly keep explaining it to people and justifying yourself," said Alya.
Alya said it got to be too much and eventually left the school after one year.
The Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) is helping Alya with her civil rights claim - she's asking for $60,000 in damages.
Concordia University said in a statement to CJAD 800 News that they can't discuss specific cases but that they've been steadily working to improve how they handle cases of misconduct and that they've done a lot of work in recent years to ensure a safe environment.
"I think it's all talk and no action," said Alya.
"I'm not asking just for compensation - I really also ask that they do something and they change their system so that these victims can get the help that they need and ultimately that there are no more victims."