January 2025 – The Beginning
In January 2025, RRC Polytech launched a public reconciliation campaign that waived both the application fee and $400 seat deposit for Indigenous students.
I applied to the Game Development – Programming program during this campaign, around New Year’s Day. On January 27, 2025, I received my onboarding email confirming my application status.
This campaign followed an earlier initiative from June 2024, which also waived fees for Indigenous applicants as part of National Indigenous History Month (source).
This moment marks the documented start of my involvement with RRC. Earlier Discord communication with the Game Jam Collective occurred but wasn’t archived.
February–March 2025 – Rising Concerns
I began raising questions about equity in program intake, promotional representation, and the lack of visible Indigenous student success stories. My inquiries were respectful, but direct. Asking why no Indigenous graduates were publicly shown, and how inclusion was being measured.
February 24, 2025 – Grant Rejection and Industry Thread
On February 24, I received a rejection notice from Manitoba Film & Music for the IMPACT mentorship grant, which would have supported my work mentoring a youth artist on a funded project. It was a longshot — and in the end, they didn’t want me.
Still, this process is how I ended up being introduced to New Media Manitoba, which opened up a new line of communication with the industry sector tied to RRC’s program.
April 25, 2025 – Industry Confirms Discord Surveillance
On April 25, I had a scheduled video call with Corrine Gusnoski of New Media Manitoba. We spoke for over an hour about the Winnipeg development scene, community access, and the circles surrounding game development in the city.
That’s when it was confirmed: the Winnipeg Game Jam Collective Discord was monitored and populated by faculty members, Ubisoft partners, New Media Manitoba staff, and Epic Games reps.
This wasn’t just a peer-run space. It was a coordinated industry pipeline where surveillance, blacklisting, and soft control mechanisms were all in play — and the people in power knew it.
April–May 2025 – Portfolio Shenanigans
After asking difficult but necessary questions about Indigenous representation, I submitted my full portfolio to the admissions team for final evaluation. I was informed I had placed 10th — just outside the acceptance cutoff. No feedback, no breakdown, no transparency.
Since then, I’ve heard from two other accepted applicants — one via Discord, one on Reddit — who openly admitted their portfolios were incomplete or far weaker than mine. One submitted unfinished Unity demos. The other had no working code at all.
It became clear this wasn’t about merit. It was about gatekeeping. I was being slowly boxed out of a program I had applied to under a reconciliation campaign — while less qualified applicants were quietly accepted instead.
Spring 2025 – Collective Hostility
Around this same time, my involvement in the Winnipeg Game Jam Collective Discord took a sharp turn.
Virtually anything I said — whether it was about animations, programming ideas, or portfolio planning — was met with hostility. I wasn’t being rude. I was just showing interest. But the tone shifted into open group-wide aggression.
One user in particular, “The Manliest Dev”, repeatedly implied I was a liar or exaggerating. Others chimed in with regular comments about how “fake” my work was because I had used AI tools. At that point, I had done nothing more than contribute my vision and excitement to game development discussions.
Not a single member stood up or pushed back against the tone. The group dynamic had clearly shifted — I had become the target.
Despite all the claims of community and inclusion, none of those individuals have shown any professional presence online since. Not one of them appears on Google or LinkedIn. It raises serious concerns about whether this was a real merit-based space — or just another closed circle protecting its own.
Spring 2025 – Discord Hostility and Monitoring Exposure
During the portfolio review period, I made a few calm, honest remarks in the Winnipeg Game Jam Collective Discord — explaining that I wasn’t overly concerned about the program outcome, and that based on my experience, the instructors likely wouldn’t be teaching me much I couldn’t already learn on my own.
I never swore. I never got aggressive. I simply shared my perspective, and reflected on what I had seen so far. But even this was met with immediate hostility from virtually every group member.
The user known as “The Manliest Dev” in particular made repeated, vague accusations — suggesting I was lying, faking credentials, or making things up. Others accused me of being inauthentic simply for using AI tools to develop visuals or language for my portfolio.
Eventually, I was banned from the Discord entirely — under the false accusation of “spreading hate.” All for calmly stating my view of the program and my own work.
In hindsight, it had become clear: the group’s moderators and leadership were passively trying to provoke or discredit me for some time. But I never gave them what they wanted. I didn’t lash out. I didn’t retaliate.
What I did do — by simply observing and asking questions — was accidentally expose a subtle network of institutional oversight. The Discord group was clearly linked to internal staff at RRC’s Game Development program. Certain moderators appeared to be coordinating with instructors, quietly feeding information back about what applicants were saying or sharing.
A community that claimed to support “new voices” had, in fact, been monitoring and policing them — while punishing anyone who challenged the illusion.
July 7, 2025 – The Barring Letter
On July 7, 2025, I received a formal letter from Red River College Polytechnic. Signed by Mandy Robinson, the Director of Enrolment Services, it barred me not only from the Game Development – Programming program, but from all RRC Polytech programs for a full year. I was also banned from stepping foot on campus — under threat of removal by security.
The reasoning? A mix of vague, unsubstantiated accusations: that I had been “disrespectful,” that my social media content was “defamatory,” and that I had violated vague policies around “recordings” — despite Canada's one-party consent law, which makes it legal to record calls I’m part of without permission.
I had never used profanity, never threatened anyone, never broken a law. What I did was ask hard questions, point out public inconsistencies, and refuse to stay quiet when faculty-led Discord circles started isolating me.
This was not an educational decision. It was retaliation. Plain and simple. A message: speak up, and we will erase you.
They even cancelled a scheduled meeting I had with Tracy Brant, the Associate Dean of the School of Indigenous Education. Without notice, without discussion. That meeting was supposed to be a moment for dialogue — to go over my experiences of institutional gaslighting and exclusion. Instead, it became more proof that no one in RRC’s leadership was interested in reconciliation — only control.
For an institution that claimed to support Indigenous applicants and promote respectful communication, this letter revealed the truth: the rules only applied when it suited them. And if you pointed that out, you were the problem.
By unilaterally shutting down that meeting — a culturally protected space arranged to discuss harm — RRC Polytech crossed a line. They converted a quiet exclusion into a blatant human rights violation. A post-secondary institution silencing an Indigenous applicant before they could speak with Indigenous leadership is not just unethical. It's discriminatory.
July 2025 – Human Rights Complaint Filed
Shortly after receiving the barring notice, I began preparing a formal complaint to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. The grounds were clear: I was excluded from a post-secondary program after raising legitimate concerns about Indigenous representation and institutional bias — and then banned from a meeting meant to address that very harm.
According to the Manitoba Human Rights Code, Section 14, it is illegal to discriminate in the provision of services or access to education based on race, ancestry, or ethnic origin. RRC Polytech not only denied me program access, but blocked me from communicating with Indigenous leadership. The fact that I had applied under a public reconciliation campaign only sharpened the contradiction.
This case is not just about one student. It's about what happens when reconciliation is used as PR — and discarded the moment it becomes inconvenient.
The complaint process is ongoing. But the timeline is now public. The evidence is documented. And the harm is clear.
May–June 2025 – Silence, Retaliation, and Erasure
I reached out to the Indigenous Centre, Elder Paul Guimond, and administrative staff. None responded with meaningful support. When I asked for transparency, I was met with silence.
I was not just excluded — I was erased. The Game Development program continued as if I had never applied. No statement was made. No documentation issued beyond the original letter.
July 2025 – Documentation Begins
I began building this site. Not as revenge — but as record. A space to collect what RRC refused to acknowledge: the paper trail, the contradictions, the absence of Indigenous representation, and the systemic failure to support applicants like me.
August 2025 – This Timeline Is Made Public
The truth belongs to the people. What RRC kept hidden — the silence of Elders, the contradictions in public messaging, the weaponized letter — is now permanently documented.
This site exists so that no other Indigenous learner has to feel alone when an institution quietly locks them out.