In January, 2025, the University of Waterloo amended its policies in accordance with the Minister’s Anti-Racism/Anti-Hate Directive. Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour was amended and a new centralized website for Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Supports was created for students. Further, in September 2025, the University sent a communication to its student associations outlining its commitments to and resources for student health and well-being.
The University of Waterloo is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive community, where diversity is celebrated, and discrimination, hate, and racism are not tolerated. The University prioritizes the holistic well-being of students, supporting their mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health with a commitment to meet diverse needs. This includes offering culturally relevant and identity-based support for students, ensuring they feel seen, understood, and valued. Programs and services are grounded in effective, sustainable interventions to create long-term, positive impact for students.
Waterloo Anti-Racism Anti-Hate Policies and Supports – Effectiveness and Implementation
The University of Waterloo’s Anti-Racism Anti-Hate framework demonstrates substantial reach and impact through multi-modal engagement across responsive case support, educational programming, outreach, and digital platforms. The volume of support provided through University supports, including the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDIRO), reflects growing trust in the framework's capacity to address diverse needs ranging from direct support to education and policy development.
The University’s President's Anti-Racism Task Force continues to implement and advance recommendations from the PART Report, engaging in campus-wide projects, including but not limited to centralized anti-hate response processes through the Office of EDI-R and dedicated counsellors and response teams for anti-hate support. The PART report will be updated in 2026 with further details and implementation progress.
Building capacity and community outreach
With 48 educational sessions engaging over 1,000 participants and 60 outreach events reaching 3,450 community members, and 1,583 individuals currently enrolled in four Anti-Hate LEARN modules, the framework provides both responsive support and proactive education to foster an inclusive campus environment.
Digital Engagement
Significant digital engagement including 32,074 unique website users, 4,825 unique user resource downloads, and 21% growth in social media followers positions the framework as the central resource for advancing equity and combating hate at the University of Waterloo. Top performing pages in the last year include EDIRO’s homepage (3,461 unique users), Religious Days of Observance (3,044 unique users), and Anti-Racism Anti-Hate Supports (2,134 unique users).
Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour
Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour is the University of Waterloo’s centralized anti-racism and anti-hate policy. In 2025, the policy was amended to reflect Directive requirements, including but not limited to outlining annual reporting requirements. The Policy has always been publicly available. The Policy now also lives on the new centralized website for Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Supports which outlines the University of Waterloo's commitments with respect to anti-racism and anti-hate to address all forms of racism and hate and identify how the University is proactively creating an inclusive post-secondary environment. The table below reports the data as outlined in Policy 33.
University of Waterloo’s 2025 report data.
| Total Complainants1 | Total Nature of Complaint | ||
|
Faculty Staff Student Other |
3 5 5 0 |
Discrimination Harassment Poisoned Environment |
4 10 7 |
| Total Code Group |
Total Sub-Categories of Associated Code-Group (s), if applicable |
||
|
Age Ancestry, colour, race Citizenship Ethnic origin Place of origin Creed Disability Family status Marital status Gender identity, gender expression Receipt of public assistance (housing only) Record of offences (employment only) Sex (including pregnancy and breastfeeding) Sexual orientation |
0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 |
Anti-Black Racism Anti-Indigenous Racism Antisemitism Islamophobia |
2 0 0 0 |
|
Total Results of Preliminary Assessment |
Total Investigative Findings | ||
|
Proceeded to investigation Did not proceed to investigation |
9 4 |
Breach of Policy 33 No Breach of Policy 33 |
7 2 |
| Total Discipline or other Outcome Imposed | 7 | Total Law Enforcement Involvement | 0 |
|
Total Times to Resolve Complaints |
Total Initial Communications to Complainants |
||
|
0-6 months 6-12 months More than 12 months |
9 0 0 |
Within 30 days More than 30 days |
13 0 |
| Investigative Findings Accepted | |||
|
Yes No |
9 0 |
||
[1] An individual may submit a single complaint that contains multiple allegations. This is why the “Total Nature of Complaint” sum may be higher than the number of complainants.