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Recently, I was spending a Sunday afternoon with friends on the McGill University campus, sitting on a bench draped with Israeli flags and yellow ribbons, symbolizing our hope for the safe return of the Israeli hostages.
Passersby stop to talk, fill in information gaps, offer help or ask tough questions. We talk about peace and justice. Many question the anti-Israel signs at the encampment we face. None of the protesters at the encampment talk to us. I realize, with regret, that this is the difference between this protest and the anti-war movement I experienced in my youth.
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I was an undergraduate at Columbia University during the Vietnam War protests, and many of the student actions at that time have been compared to the recent protests at Columbia and McGill.
College was a formative time for me, as it is for all young people. It was there that I discovered where I stood on important issues and found my calling to take action. In the fall of 1969, the anti-war movement embodied the anti-establishment spirit of the time in culture, music, and art. Feminism was on the rise, and we were listening, learning, debating, and trying new ideas. Dialogue and transparency were the hallmarks.
While the majority of students on campus were against the war, not all agreed with the more dogmatic position. For my American classmates, the argument to stop the war was even more specific because of the draft.
After graduating, I enrolled in the McGill University School of Medicine, undertook additional training in the United States, and eventually returned to McGill as a professor of medicine. Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the brutal war that followed, I have been observing and participating in internal debates about local events, not about geopolitics per se.
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As if on cue, immediately after the Hamas attacks, before any Israeli response, a movement of online denial erupted among unlikely audiences, including my colleagues. At first, small groups of people, not all of them students, roamed campuses, shouting and disrupting classes, then formed encampments.
They call themselves peace progressives, but unlike their anti-war brethren from years ago, they refused to speak to me when I approached them, their faces covered.
Instead, they shout slogans. What began with “ceasefire” and “peace now” is now “world jihad,” “all Zionists must die,” and vile, explicitly anti-Semitic language. From what I see and hear, this doesn't feel like a peace movement, but rather a pro-Hamas movement. Their denial of Israel's right to exist with calls like “repeat with me, from the river to the sea” seems to sideline the real tragedy of war. I tried to talk to the women in the group to discuss the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. They would not debate, much less condemn.
One of the students' stated goals is for McGill University to sever academic ties with Israel in the areas of medical research and innovation – two areas where Quebecers have much to gain from collaboration. Partnerships with Israeli universities and scholars have resulted in many amazing new medicines and innovations that save and improve lives in Quebec and beyond. What a tragedy it would be for Quebecers to lose these.
As a longtime anti-war activist and advocate for progressive civil and human rights, I have been astonished at how easily my friends and colleagues have abandoned these ideals to join other causes. While the outcome of this campus occupation and this war is uncertain, there is still hope for peace.
As a healthcare leader, I recently attended a Canada-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce conference to exchange knowledge and experiences on medical technology innovation. Listening to the ambassador from Vietnam, a country now prosperous and peaceful from a historical perspective, I couldn't help but feel hopeful, as it became clear to me at that moment that anything is possible.
Gerard Baptiste is a professor of medicine and oncology at McGill University.
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