More than a hundred students are outraged after a convicted killer who murdered a woman and left a teenage girl quadriplegic was banned from their Canadian COLLEGE campus, as some claim the man was a victim of colonialism.
Jeffrey George Ewert is out on parole after four decades behind bars for the murder of a young woman he offered a ride home to and the brutal beating of a 15-year-old girl whom he left permanently disabled in 1984.
Ewert, now in his 60s, had been a student at McGill University’s Law School since August until administrators decided to ban the killer from campus this month.
McGill provost Angela Campbell told students the university had taken ‘measured, decisive action,’ according to The Gazette.
The killer’s exclusion prompted more than 120 current and former law students to sign a petition calling for his return.
‘We are shocked by the reactive manner in which McGill University has responded to this issue,’ the McGill Law Students’ Association’s executive wrote Saturday in an email obtained by The Gazette.
‘As law students, we are taught to recognize the injustices perpetuated by the criminal justice system and to understand the importance of rehabilitation and offenders’ rights,’ the email said in part.
At one point, the students’ letter went as far as suggesting the university consider the effects colonialism had on Ewert, who is an Indigenous man, calling his incarceration ‘inextricable from the colonial institutions in which he was born.’
Jeffrey George Ewert murdered a young woman he offered a ride home to and brutally beat a 15-year-old girl whom he left permanently disabled in 1984
Now on parole Ewert decided to attend McGill University’s Law School in August until administrators decided to ban the killer from campus this month
‘Jeff’s situation is where our collective commitments to reconciliation and rehabilitation are tested,’ reads the petition.
Raymond Johnson-Brown, one of the law students leading the initiative, told the outlet that he and other students became friends with the killer and witnessed two security guards escort him off campus.
‘We understand that there’s a duty to keep students safe,’ said Johnson-Brown, before adding that Ewert faced no allegations of wrongdoing at McGill.
‘I personally don’t see somebody who has committed a crime, served [decades in prison] and is now out on day parole as impacting me or my well-being,’ said the student.
According to a report by CBC, various clinical assessments ranked Ewert’s risk of reoffending as moderate to high.
With close supervision at a halfway house and clinical follow-up, that risk ‘seems to fall more into the moderate risk category,’ according to parole documents cited by the outlet.
Johnson-Brown added that concerns from women on campus about Ewert’s history were understandable.
The killer’s exclusion prompted more than 120 current and former law students to sign a petition calling for his return including Raymond Johnson-Brown (pictured), who said he became friends with the murderer
McGill provost Angela Campbell told students the university had taken ‘measured, decisive action’
In 2025, while on day parole, which allows a prisoner to be released during the day and return to an approved residence at night, Ewert violated his release conditions multiple times, including restrictions on his contact with women, according to the outlet.
Johnson-Brown also echoed that colonialism should be ‘taken into consideration in understanding why we got the act of murder … that he committed,’ but clarified that it did not excuse Ewert’s crimes, The Gazette reports.
Ewert’s heinous crimes began with the murder of a young woman he met at a bar. He offered her a ride home before strangling and sexually assaulting her, according to CTV News. She died as a result of the attack.
His other victim, a 15-year-old girl, was also strangled and assaulted after she refused his advances. Ewert was in his 20s at the time.
He believed she was dead after the vicious attack and dumped her body in a ditch, where she was found the next day.
She is now blind and quadriplegic.
Provost Campbell sent a memo to students Friday in which she acknowledged the killer’s criminal history and reassured them of the university’s commitment to ensuring students feel safe.
‘We know many members of our community, particularly in the Faculty of Law, are worried and are asking why they weren’t told more, sooner. Those concerns are legitimate. We hear them and we take them seriously,’ Campbell wrote in the memo, obtained by CTV News.
‘At the same time, McGill is committed to dignity and to second chances. Our University believes in rehabilitation and in the power of education to transform lives. A past conviction does not on its own bar anyone from studying here. That commitment must always be balanced against our duty of care to the whole community,’ Campbell added.
The memo added that university officials are reviewing how they respond to situations such as Ewert’s case.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the McGill University Law Students’ Association for comment.
