More than 100 students have expressed outrage after a convicted killer who murdered one woman and left a 15-year-old girl quadriplegic was barred from a Canadian college campus. Some students argued that his case should be viewed through the lens of colonialism.
Jeffrey George Ewert was granted parole after spending four decades in prison for the 1984 murder of a young woman he had offered a ride home and the brutal assault of a teenage girl who was left permanently disabled.
Ewert, now in his 60s, had been attending McGill University’s Faculty of Law since August. University administrators banned him from campus this month.
McGill provost Angela Campbell told students that the university had taken “measured, decisive action,” according to The Gazette.
The decision to exclude Ewert led more than 120 current and former law students to sign a petition demanding that he be allowed to return.
“We are shocked by the reactive manner in which McGill University has responded to this issue,” the executive of the McGill Law Students’ Association said in an email sent Saturday and 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 message said.
The students’ letter also urged the university to consider the impact of colonialism on Ewert, who is Indigenous. It described his imprisonment as “inextricable from the colonial institutions in which he was born.”
Jeffrey George Ewert murdered a young woman he had offered a ride home and violently assaulted a 15-year-old girl, leaving her permanently disabled, in 1984
Ewert, who is now on parole, began attending McGill University’s Faculty of Law in August before administrators barred him from campus this month
“Jeff’s situation is where our collective commitments to reconciliation and rehabilitation are tested,” the petition stated.
Raymond Johnson-Brown, one of the law students organizing the campaign, told the outlet that he and other students had become friends with Ewert. He said they watched as two security guards escorted him from campus.
“We understand that there’s a duty to keep students safe,” Johnson-Brown said, while noting that Ewert had not been accused of any 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,” the student said.
However, several clinical assessments rated Ewert’s risk of reoffending as moderate to high, according to a report by CBC.
Parole documents cited by the outlet said that, with close supervision in a halfway house and ongoing clinical follow-up, his risk “seems to fall more into the moderate risk category.”
Johnson-Brown also acknowledged that concerns raised by women on campus about Ewert’s criminal history were understandable.
The decision to bar Ewert prompted more than 120 current and former law students to petition for his return, including Raymond Johnson-Brown (pictured), who said he had become friends with the convicted murderer
McGill provost Angela Campbell told students that the university had taken “measured, decisive action”
According to the outlet, Ewert violated his release conditions several times in 2025 while on day parole, which permits a prisoner to leave during the day and return at night to an approved residence. The violations included restrictions on his contact with women.
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.