An Unbearable Climate on Campus

"[Students will no longer tolerate our university's remorseless complicity in the occupation of Palestine and the destruction of its people."

"McGill students have demonstrated that we will remain steadfast in advancing the Palestinian struggle for liberation, despite intimidation and repression."

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill  (SPHR) student group

McGill University students rally on campus Nov. 9, 2023. (Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews Image)

 

McGill University gave due notice it could take steps to sever ties with its student union over its  activities voting in favour of adopting a contentious pro-Palestinian policy. A Monday vote garnered 78 percent support of students who participated, voting in favour of the policy titled Policy Against Genocide in Palestine, against the background of tensions on  university campuses brought by the Israeli-Hamas Conflict.

Jewish advocacy group B'Nai Brith Canada took legal action purposing to stop the policy from being taken to a vote. The University was called upon in an open letter signed by Jewish students and alumni to remove the question from the Students' Society of McGill University's 2023 fall referendum, one of several topics that students voted on during the referendum. Subject to a legal review, several steps remain before the policy can be adopted.

"The proposed policy, if adopted, will sharpen divisions in our community at a time when many students are already distressed", responded a  university spokesperson; despite the voting results, it was pointed out, the stance on the issue by the university will remain. The SSMU's constitution stipulates the student  union is meant to facilitate interactions between all students, behaving in their best interests.

An adoption of the policy would represent, the university stated, a breach of that constitution. The  university administration had contacted the SSMU to "outline the consequences of adopting the policy", similar to last year when students voted in favour of a Palestine Solidarity Policy, which was never ultimately adopted.

SSMU president Alexandre Ashkir observed its board of directors are set to review the policy prior to voting whether it should be ratified. According to him the union is of the belief the policy would not cause such tensions as McGill claims would result on its ratification. Piously, he claimed, would that be the case, the question would never have been included in the referendum.

This year's turnout for the vote more than doubled from the earlier event when students voted in favour of the pro-Palestinian policy the year before. While 8,400 students voted in the referendum, representing 35 percent of eligible voters, 5,974 voted for the policy, with 1,620 voting against it, and another 807 students chose to abstain.

In response to what the school described as "abhorrent" posts made by SPHR (Students for Palestinian Human Rights McGill), the  university is attempting to revoke its use of the university's name. The policy voted on by the students calls on the university to condemn the bombing in Gaza and to cut ties with corporations "complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians".

Public comments from McGill officials since the outbreak of the war, were also criticized by the student union, characterizing them as threats aimed toward students who voice their solidarity with Palestinians. Jewish students and alumni voiced concerns that the policy could make an already "unbearable" climate on campus even worse.

 

Students from Concordia, McGill and Université de Montréal held walk-outs to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. (Erika Morris/CBC)

"[The university has taken step in recent weeks to ensure the discourse on campus remains safe and responsible] and to put in place measures to support students and colleagues who feel especially vulnerable and hurt at this time."

"Notably those who are Muslim, Jewish, and Arab."

McGill University

"Some McGill students say their right to express support for Palestinians is being suppressed, after a Quebec court temporarily put a stop to a student plan to adopt a pro-Palestinian policy at the university.

Quebec Superior Court issued a safeguard order Tuesday, preventing the student union from moving forward until the court can hear arguments from both sides on March 25, 2024."

"A McGill student — who remains anonymous and is represented by a lawyer working for Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada — filed an injunction to stop the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) from adopting a 'policy against genocide in Palestine' that was approved in a referendum this week."

"The policy calls on McGill University to cut ties with people, corporations and institutions that are 'complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians'."

CBC News

Academia: Erasing Scholarship -- Embracing Woke Ideology

Canadian student unions, from York University to the University of Toronto, are facing backlash over anti-Israel statements issued amid Israel facing deadly Hamas attacks. True North

"We condemn the erasure of trans and queer Palestinians as integral to their communities, along with the many ways powerful politicians and the media refer to all Palestinians as terrorists or dehumanize them through forms of animalization."

Queen's University Department of Gender Studies 'solidarity' statement

"[All students are invited to an] emergency [lecture on the subject of] decolonizing [mathematics]."

"In particular we'll focus on Palestine and the idea of academic boycott."

Tarik Aougab, Haverford College, Pennsylvania Zoom lecture

"As anthropologists, we know that it is essential for scholars to situate the current war in its broad historical and social contexts, including those of settler colonialism."

120 anthropology students and faculty from major universities in Canada

 

"Freedom of expression has limits and comes with responsibilities. It must never reach into promoting or justifying violence against unarmed civilians."

"To suggest otherwise is abhorrent and does not reflect the views of York University, nor the perspective of many thousands of York University students." 

York University statement

Vari Hall at York University in Toronto. York student groups recently posted a letter offering solidarity with the Palestinian people against "so-called Israel." Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Postmedia

Logic and justice along with basic reasoning seem to have gone AWOL in universities of late. All appear to have wholeheartedly embraced Critical Race Theory, and draw close to their hearts the sacred ideology reflected by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and all appear to have agreed that Jews are exempt from DEI considerations since, although an ethnic and religious minority they are part of the 'imperialist' white 'colonial-mentality' mainstream. 

Both reality and logic are totally absent in the dearly beloved solidarity statement of the gender studies group promoting the trans and queer community among Palestinians where in fact were any gays, trans and queers to out themselves in either the 'West Bank' or Gaza, their immediate death throes would be guaranteed.

But then, any cock-eyed ideology that frames Israel as an illegitimate colony, and that in its self-assigned role of 'occupying' both Palestinian territories it is entirely their fault if those suffering Palestinians in Gaza saw fit to invade Israel on October 7 to rampage violently through towns, villages and kibbutzim bordering Gaza in Israel, slaughtering 1,400 Israelis of all ages, raping girls and women, and taking well over 200 vulnerable civilians from infants to the elderly, hostages.

Moreover, Hamas 'freedom fighters' designated by the nomenclature of violent terrorists slanders the nobility of their cause -- to liberate 'Palestine' from Israeli exploitation and humiliation, when the real abusers of human rights is the government of Israel whose agenda is to accomplish its plan of destroying Palestinians, from babies to courageous martyrs for the 'cause' of liberating Palestine.

In Canada, the civilian massacres of Israelis was welcome news to a great swath of academia who view it as Palestinian heroism in finally exacting a penalty from their persecutors. 'Palestine will be free!' they gloat on social media. Tenured professors, faculty unions and student societies signed on to public statements cheering on the murder of over 1,400 Israelis as an act of 'resistance'. Adding it was time for similar such raging violence to take place on the entire world 'settler colonials'.

A "strong act of resistance" was how the York Federation of Students with their history of support for Palestinian fanaticism, characterized the October 7 savage assaults, finally leading York University to launch a process of de-registering the group. That reaction of the university's long-overdue move saw the federation speaking of themselves as victims of "defamation".

 

The names of the York students involved were entered into the Province's legislative record by Ontario's minister of colleges and universities, noting they had endorsed Hamas and supported "rape, torture and mass murder". Which elicited a response from the University of Toronto Mississauga student union claiming the action was akin to "bullying" and "doxing". As for Queen's University in Kingston, their Palestinian Solidarity for Human Rights frame the October 7 massacres as "decolonization and Indigenization" in action.

"They are a rightful practice of Indigenous people across the world", they responded. To which Queen's Principal responded with a vague statement decrying a rise of "antisemitism and Islamophobia" on campus. "Your silence on this matter speaks volumes and is very concerning to us parents ... Terror is not neutral. It must be stopped in its tracks", wrote over 200 Jewish alumni and 700 parents of Jewish students questioning that Queen's was "conflicted in its position on something so absolute".

"We stand in solidarity with Palestine and support all forms of Palestinian resistance and efforts toward liberation" wrote students from Toronto Metropolitan University's Lincoln Alexander School of Law. Prompting an uncharacteristic statement of condemnation from TMU administrators who themselves then wrote: "We unequivocally condemn the sentiments of Antisemitism and intolerance expressed in this message."

To which came a rejoinder from a group of Toronto lawyers decrying TMU's "weak" reply in the face of a group of potential Canadian lawyers endorsing terrorism and war crimes. The lawyers recommended suspension, at the very least, public recantation to be permitted to remain in the program. Law firms in Toronto have gone further on their own initiative, noting the names of the signees and pledging that none among them will find employment with them.