Nova Scotia town seeking novel approach to dealing with unruly university students

A small Nova Scotia town that has struggled to tame its sometimes rowdy population of university students is considering advice from an unlikely source.

A small Nova Scotia town that has struggled to tame its sometimes rowdy population of university students is considering advice from an unlikely source.

Last week, the town of Wolfville — home to Acadia University — received a draft study that draws some lessons from the inquiry that investigated the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting that claimed 22 lives.

The inquiry, formally known as the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC), found widespread failures in how the RCMP responded to the killings. In March 2023, it issued 130 recommendations to improve public safety, a majority of which apply in some form to the Mounties.

In the introduction to the Acadia study, criminology professor Stephen Schneider says the town specifically asked him to explore alternatives to the RCMP in addressing community safety issues.

Schneider, who teaches at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, says the final report from the inquiry concluded that while police remain key to protecting the public, they should not be the primary responders to certain calls for help.

“In its recommendations regarding the dual public health emergencies of mental health illnesses and violence against women, the MCC recommends ‘decentring justice,'” Schneider says in the 160-page report.

“This means replacing police as primary responders for many types of calls for service with health-care or social-welfare professionals. The MCC also emphasized the need for more community-based solutions.”

That’s exactly what Schneider is proposing for Wolfville’s challenges with disorderly students.