Queen’s says it’s ‘unfortunate’ former student, convicted of assault, used as guest speaker

Correction: In a previous edit of this story, we had stated he was convicted of sexual assault. This was incorrect, he was charged and convicted of assault.

Queen’s University has released a statement regarding a guest lecture by a former student, convicted of assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a Kingston house party in 2015.

The university has confirmed that Chance Macdonald did participate as a guest speaker in a business class, via Skype, in May 2018.

Macdonald was asked to speak at the invitation of an individual faculty member.

In the statement, Queen’s says “the participation of Mr. Macdonald in this instance was unfortunate. As we expressed at the time of his conviction, the university shares and sympathizes with the emotions that people were expressing about the original incident. Similarly, the university shares the concerns about the May 2018 speaking event.”

The statement also confirms that the faculty member involved in booking Macdonald has committed to having the process for booking guest speakers reviewed.

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Macdonald refers to himself as Andrew, his middle name, in his professional profiles online. MacDonald did have two Twitter pages listed under the name “Andrew,” pages he used to discuss cryptocurrency.

By Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., those Twitter accounts were taken offline.

The university says Macdonald has not returned to campus since his conviction.

The former junior hockey player’s case sparked controversy when his sentencing was delayed to the fall of 2017 so his criminal record would not interfere with a summer internship he had secured.

WATCH: Petition calls for Kingston judge to be removed from bench

2:23 Petition wants Kingston Judge removed from Bench

An online petition was launched to remove Justice Allan Letourneau from the bench for granting a request by the defence to hold over sentencing. The petition, which is now closed, has more than 17,000 signatures.

Macdonald was sentenced to 88 days of intermittent jail time on weekends and two years probation.