Claire Wilson Staff Writer

Between 2:40 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, January 14th, a man entered several buildings on the St. George campus, including Old Vic and Sorbara Hall at St. Michael’s College. He lit several small fires and then left. At 4:35 pm, 17 firetrucks were dispatched to Old Vic, and firefighters were seen breaking the windows and sawing through bars to access the basement where the fire was lit.  

A fire was also lit and property destroyed in Sorbara Hall at St. Michael’s College. Sorbara Hall resident Maxwell Goddard was in class when the fire was set, but was nonetheless shaken to know that the incident had taken place in his residence building. “They set a poster on fire and I believe a shower curtain,” he reported.  

On Thursday, January 15, TPS released images and a description of the suspect, Yuriy Khraplyvyy. For these incidents, the man is wanted for three counts of arson causing damage to property and two other counts of mischief. 

In light of this incident and the recent shooting at the Scarborough campus, more students are talking about campus safety. Do we really need more of it, and what might that look like?

For some, this means increased surveillance. In an interview with City News, one student said, “if we have security that’s like actively in every building or around campus, they would notice when someone’s walking around lighting fires in the middle of buildings, you know?” 

After several incidents of voyeurism at New College in 2023, students began to raise concerns online about the lack of TCard access at most U of T buildings. In a February 2025 article from The Varsity, Olga Fedossenko discusses student perceptions of safety measures on campus, writing, “Katerina Vovk — a fourth-year engineering science student from UTSG — wrote in an email to The Varsity that she feels ‘much safer in buildings where there are [TCard] scanners.’ … Despite her safety concerns, Vovk wrote that having to take out her TCard every time she enters a building would be ‘inconvenient.’ She continued that she felt ‘that the scanners would create too much annoyance.’” 

Many students feel that there aren’t enough safety concerns to warrant the installation of TCard scanners in every building, especially considering that one of the perpetrators in the 2024 voyeurism incident was himself a U of T student and would not have been deterred by TCard scanners.

A commenter on the Varsity article writes, “we do not need a securitized, gatekept campus because a few people ‘feel’ unsafe with this, often not related to any actual events that made them feel unsafe… I would oppose this on a philosophical level, but that doesn’t even consider the potential costs/use of resources which could so obviously be better spent.” 

According to a campus safety alert on January 15th, patrols were increased after the fires. U of T does not currently plan to add any new TCard scanners.