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More than two years after a protest at the University of Toronto that ended in a melee between students and campus police, two former students who were charged in connection with the demonstration have launched a lawsuit.

Oriel Varga and Christopher Ramsaroop are suing both the university and the police, plus President David Naylor, and several other administrators.

The pair allege that they took no active part in the altercation, but the university targeted them because they were student leaders and that the authorities dragged their feet for months, needlessly prolonging the legal procedures that would ultimately see the charges stayed by a judge.

None of the claims has been tested in court.

Both worked for the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, and took part in the March, 2008 demonstration against residence fee increases at Simcoe Hall, the building that houses university administrative offices. The protesters later went inside the building to stage a sit-in outside the offices of the president and vice-president, while Ms. Varga left to go to work. Around 5 p.m. that day, campus police scuffled with protestors as they tried to move them out of the way.

Both the university and the Toronto Police Service intend to contest the suit, but neither would immediately discuss its details.

In a written statement, however, the school re-iterated its position that the protest had forceably confined staffers.

"The University of Toronto, and its staff members who have been unfairly targeted by the plaintiffs, will be defending the claim vigorously," it read. "Remarkably, the claim goes so far as to sue the innocent victims who were confined in an office against their will in an incident inside Simcoe Hall in 2008. The University believes the claim to be entirely without merit, and it will be seeking to have it dismissed, with costs."

According to Ms. Varga and Mr. Ramsaroop's statement of claim, they were not responsible for the altercation, as Ms. Varga was outside the building and Mr. Ramsaroop was at the back of the crowd, away from police. All 14 students arrested in the wake of the protest ultimately had their charges dropped or stayed.

"A month after this protest, they had picked members of groups and allies to clearly make an example of us," Ms. Varga said. "The irony was, I wasn't even in the building, and neither were many of us who were charged."

For roughly 17 months, both lived with restrictive bail conditions. In Mr. Ramsaroop's case, he was barred from attending campus for any purpose other than class, which interfered with his work for APUS. In September 2009, a judge accepted that their charter rights had been breached by the unduly slow turning of the wheels of justice, and stayed the charges.

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