Breadcrumb Links
columnist
Published on May 24, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 min read
To save this article, register for free here, or sign in if you have an account.
At least 30 pro-Palestine tents are set up in a courtyard at the University of Alberta on May 10, 2024. Students are demanding that the university divest from businesses with ties to Israel. Photo: Sean Butts/Postmedia
Article Contents
I join the voices of academics and community members dismayed by police crackdowns on peaceful student protesters at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta, whose right to assemble on campus to express pro-Palestinian views is prima facie guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Universities had reasonable response options in response to student demands to divest from interests related to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians: dialogue, perhaps a forum, to hear students’ concerns, as at McGill, respectful interaction, as at the University of British Columbia, or a commitment to a “calm and measured approach to the camp sites”, as at the University of Victoria, to name just a few.
Ad 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
This content is available to subscribers only
Subscribe now to read the latest news from your city and across Canada.
Exclusive articles from David Staples, Keith Gerein and more, Oilers news from Cult of Hockey, Ask EJ Anything features, Noon News Roundup and Under the Dome newsletter. Get unlimited online access to the Edmonton Journal and 15 news sites with one account. The Edmonton Journal ePaper is a digital version of the print edition that you can view, share and comment on on any device. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times crossword. Support local journalism.
Subscribe to unlock more articles
Subscribe now to read the latest news from your city and across Canada.
Exclusive articles from David Staples, Keith Gerein and more, Oilers news from Cult of Hockey, Ask EJ Anything features, Noon News Roundup and Under the Dome newsletter. Get unlimited online access to the Edmonton Journal and 15 news sites with one account. The Edmonton Journal ePaper is a digital version of the print edition that you can view, share and comment on on any device. Daily puzzles, including the New York Times crossword. Support local journalism.
Register/Sign in to view more articles
To continue reading, please create an account or sign in.
Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts in the comments and join the conversation. Enjoy additional articles every month. Receive email updates from your favourite authors.
Sign in or create an account
or
Article Contents
Article Contents
If there was credible evidence of a threat to safety, universities could use civil litigation with procedural safeguards to seek injunctive relief, as McGill did, giving students the opportunity to assert their Charter rights in court and test the university's claims. Police use of force against demonstrating students should be a last resort, reserved only for cases of threats or actual criminal activity.
University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan stated (Edmonton Journal, May 13) that “camping in the courtyard poses serious, even deadly, risks” and claimed that the protesters possessed “potential weapons” including “hammers, axes, screwdrivers and a box of needles.” In a national newspaper (The Globe and Mail, May 13), he cited the risks of “illegal drug use” and the “potential for violence by oppositionists.”
Does anyone really believe that the students were carrying carpentry tools for dangerous purposes rather than pitching tents and hanging banners, or that the needles were not part of “medical supplies brought by certified paramedics,” as organizers claim? And if that's true, where are the weapons and drug charges? These claims paint all students as illegal and are contradicted by eyewitness testimony.
Headline News
Thank you for your registration!
Article Contents
Ad 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
Article Contents
To be clear, the charges against students were filed after contact with police, not for conduct prior to that. It is unclear whether that was meritorious conduct, but there is no evidence that charges would have been filed against anyone without police intervention.
Inflammatory rhetoric is not leadership but rather the opposite, suggesting that the university is taking a stand rather than remaining aloof from the fray.
Flanagan also unfoundedly claimed that “fewer than a quarter of the campers were University of Alberta students.” This is a common American tactic, especially at wealthy private universities, to justify the use of police force by citing the infiltration of outside troublemakers, then closing the iron gates to protect the university from the general public.
We are fortunate to have taxpayer-funded public universities in this country. Citizens are free to go their own way, demonstrate there, and hold their universities accountable. Deploying armed police with batons, American-style, to attack students at dawn is completely inappropriate in the context of a charter-protected Canadian public university. That the Premier of Alberta would call for this very response raises questions: What pressure was exerted on the universities, who exerted the pressure, and how was the decision made?
Ad 4
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but article continues below.
Article Contents
These actions in Edmonton demonstrate a deep misunderstanding of our community, which has a long history of peaceful protests for workers' rights, abortion rights, Indigenous rights, 2SLGBTQ rights, and more. We complain about the departure of young people, but when they show up they are thwarted by arbitrary use of force and police. Why be afraid of public debate? Fear words and ideas that some may not agree with? If not at university, where else would we be afraid?
The university chose a simple response to a complex problem, which came at a great cost to the university's reputation, freedom of expression, and the idealism of young people. As the University of Alberta's Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences wrote in her resignation letter, the camp served as a model for solidarity between Palestinian, Jewish, and Indigenous communities and allies, as opposed to violent removal.
The University of Alberta should apologize to students and the community, drop the trespassing charges and complaints, be an example of respectful dialogue, and, along with police, be held accountable for their actions in public hearings where questions must be answered.
Sheila Grecol is a former judge of the Alberta Court of Appeal and Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and a labour and human rights lawyer for over 20 years. She received an Honorary Doctor of Laws and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Alberta.
Article Contents
Share this article on social networks
