On campuses across the country, the level of repression against Palestine solidarity has reached unheard-of proportions. The examples of campus security, and sometimes even the police, intervening to deprive students of their democratic right to organize, pile up every week.
At Carleton University, an RCP comrade flyering for the student strike for Palestine campaign was taken away by campus security in handcuffs and detained for several hours. He was charged with trespassing, and banned from setting foot on the campus.
At the University of Alberta, another activist was threatened with expulsion.
At the University of Victoria, students were chased off of the campus by security simply for distributing pamphlets which explained the need for a student strike to end the university’s investments in Israel. In Sherbrooke, an activist was fined $400 for distributing flyers!
These examples only scratch the surface.
A political attack
Since the encampments swept through universities this spring, the establishment in Canada sent the message that they want the protests to end.
During the summer, Federal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who has been notorious for slandering protestors as antisemites and hate-mongers, went so far as to pen an open letter alongside Zionist organizations like B’nai Brith containing a list of demands for how the universities should keep the movement in check.
In Quebec, right after the McGill encampment was dismantled, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry called for a “peaceful” return to school this fall—i.e., no more pro-Palestine protests.
The school administrations have heeded these calls. Campus security teams have been busy harassing and kicking out activists.
McGill’s administration went so far as to issue an ultimatum to the McGill student union, the SSMU: either revoke SPHR’s club status, or the administration will remove the union’s legal right to represent the students and cut it off from its funding! Shamefully, the SSMU caved in. SPHR also lost its club status at Concordia.
The movement to end the genocide in Palestine is exposing the bloody role that Canadian imperialism plays in the world, a role to which the universities are part and parcel through their financial and personal links with bankers, arms dealers, and other crooks. This is why the movement is so intolerable to the establishment.
‘Free speech’ warriors silent
It should be noted as well that all of the usual free speech warriors, those knights in shining armour for all shades of reactionary opinion, have been silent as corpses on the repression of the Palestine movement.
High profile right-wing intellectuals like Gad Saad, Jordan Peterson, and Mathieu Bock-Côté have taken every opportunity to participate in the slandering of the pro-Palestine movement.
Let’s speak frankly—these self proclaimed defenders of “free speech” are complete hypocrites who only defend the right to spout racism, homophobia, or any other brand of prejudice. When it comes to the repression of protests against the genocide of the Palestinian people, they are either quiet or have found ways to justify the clamp down.
If we want to defend our democratic rights, we must be willing to stand up to these attacks. Our strength is in numbers. Every attempted arrest, every intimidation, we must respond to with protests and demonstrations. For communists, repression strengthens our conviction that we are doing the right thing. We will not back down, we will not be silenced!
