[2] In May 1968, six West Indian students of Sir George Williams University accused biology professor Perry Anderson of discrimination because of alleged unfair grading.
According to Expression, a quarterly publication of the Negro Citizenship Association Inc. (Conference Issue, Winter 1968), its purpose was to examine the "problems in the Canadian society with reference to black people."
These conferences, held weeks apart and at the two different venues, reflected formal agreements to disagree on priorities and span of action: domestic versus international.
[citation needed] Sir George Williams University had a more lenient admissions policy and accepted students from various backgrounds.
[7] The occupation was sparked by the university's mishandling of racism allegations against assistant professor of biology Perry Anderson, who was accused of being biased in his grading of black students.
[8] In spring 1968, six black students from the West Indies accused Anderson of racism, charging that he had given them lower grades than what their work merited.
[8] One black student, Rawl Frederick, wrote a poem describing the atmosphere at Sir George Williams University.
Entitled Man Trap, it read: "They designate institutions, we disintegrate in infernos, They consummate animals that abort us, Nursing grounds for dysgenic beasts, Developing ghettoes/employing social workers to create Negroes.
"[10] All through fall 1968, there was a mounting mood of frustration and rage by the black students against a university administration that was indifferent to their concerns.
[11] On January 28, 1969, The Georgian, the student newspaper, ran a special edition accusing Anderson of racism, and the university administration of a cover-up.
Fed up with what they considered to be intransigence on the part of the administration, black and white students left a meeting and occupied the university computer lab on the ninth floor of the Henry F. Hall Building.
On February 10, 1969, an agreement was reached under which the students would leave the Hall Building in exchange for a new committee to examine the allegations of prejudice against Anderson.
[10] The faculty of Sir George Williams University, siding with Anderson, vetoed the agreement to have a new committee appointed to examine the allegations of racial bias against black students.
[13] The incident was recorded live by television crews, the most memorable image associated with the riot was smoke arising from the Hall Building while the streets were swamped with punch cards.
He was unable to give a speech at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, as various radical students accused Canada of being a racist country.
"[12] The man considered the leader of the protest, Kennedy Frederick of Grenada, was denied bail and brought to court in a cage as if he were an animal.
[12] The media blamed lax immigration laws that allowed "trouble-making" students from the West Indies to attend Canadian universities.
He was reinstated on February 12, 1969, and, on June 30, the Hearing Committee appointed to the case found that "there was nothing in the evidence (before them) to substantiate a general charge of racism."
In April 1971, Sir George Williams adopted the University Regulations on Rights and Responsibilities and established the Ombuds office.
When the fire broke out during the destruction of the computer lab and many protesters were still in the building, some white passersby chanted ″Let the niggers burn.″[16] In February 2014, director Mina Shum and producer Selwyn Jacob began shooting in Montreal on a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary entitled Ninth Floor, about the Sir George Williams Affair.