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By The Daily Gleaner

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The University of New Brunswick and city police are conducting separate investigations into allegations that a UNB student posted hate speech online.

The university inquiry flows from a complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission by a UNB law student.

In a letter filed with the commission in March, law student Shane Martinez claims that a UNB student made numerous posts on prank.org under the user ID "ROB" over the past few years and that many of those comments constitute hate speech.

Martinez told The Daily Gleaner he was led to the posts by an Internet username the other student had provided him for communication.

The Daily Gleaner has opted to refrain from identifying the student being investigated.

The posts in question weren't made under the student's name, just under the user ID ROB.

The posts attributed to ROB include derogatory comments about women, blacks, gays and the mentally disabled.

Most of the questionable comments have been deleted from the site, but Martinez kept screen-capture records of them.

Earlier this month, UNB struck a four-person panel to delve into hate-speech allegations.

In a memorandum sent out to all staff, students and instructors of a particular faculty, the panel invites written and oral submissions about the allegations. The deadline is Friday.

The memo doesn't name a student, but it does mention the inquiry stems from a federal human-rights complaint about a UNB student.

The subject of the inquiry remains enrolled at UNB and hasn't been subjected to any disciplinary action by the school.

Dan Tanaka, communications manager with UNB, confirmed that the memo was sent.

The panel is expected to file its report and recommendations with UNB president John McLaughlin and the board of deans in late November.

If the board finds that a student conducted himself or herself in a manner that didn't reflect well on the university, it could mete out a punishment, Tanaka said.

There's a wide range of potential punishments, he said, ranging from a letter of reprimand to expulsion from UNB.

Tanaka emphasized that at this point, the panel is simply gathering information.

"We're dealing with allegations at this point," he said.

Tanaka also said none of the allegations indicates anything was said on campus or even posted on a UNB website.

Martinez made a presentation to the panel last week.

The panel was closed to the public, so the media couldn't attend any of the submission sessions.

Martinez said he also filed complaints with the Fredericton Police Force and the Canadian Armed Forces, the latter because the student in question is a member of the military.

City police confirmed the force opened a file in February concerning public incitement of hate.

"There is an investigation ongoing," said force spokesman Const. Ralph Currie.

He declined to name the subject of the investigation.

William Corby, senior Crown prosecutor for the Fredericton region, said city police consulted with his office about a hate-speech investigation to get some advice.

"We were approached," he said this week. "We were consulted in regards to it."

No charge has yet been filed with a local court or submitted to his office for approval, he said.

Corby also said he wasn't at liberty to reveal who's the subject of the investigation.

However, in a letter to Martinez from Col. R.K. Chadder, commander of 3 Area Support Group at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, the military confirmed the person in question was the focus of a city police investigation and that the military police had been made aware of the allegations.