CANADA: University that Banned Talk of Middle East Blocks MPs

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Nov 14 2002 (IPS) - Officials of a university that has banned all public discussion of the Middle East since a planned speech by a former Israeli leader was cancelled after clashes with police are going to court to block two politicians from speaking to students.

The two members of parliament, along with an activist – all known to support the Palestinian struggle for a homeland – were invited by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to speak Friday at Concordia University in Montreal.

But university representatives will be in a Montreal court Friday morning seeking an injunction to stop the event, an official said Thursday.

University Rector Frederick Lowy said earlier this week that the talks would violate the ban enacted after five people were arrested for disrupting the planned speech by former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September.

MPs Svend Robinson and Libby Davies and well-known activist Judy Rebick were invited by the CSU to talk on ‘Peace and Justice in the Middle East’. The three travelled to the region earlier this year.

”If Ms. Davies, Mr. Robinson and Ms. Rebick come despite this appeal, we will inform them that they are not welcome,” said Lowy in a statement.

"The vast majority of Concordia students, professors and staff will not welcome such an inflammatory intrusion into a campus that has regained a large degree of calm after the disgraceful violence of Sep. 9," he added.

Davies said Thursday that the university is ”hugely overreacting” and that it is ridiculous ”to suggest that we’re going to incite violence”.

She told IPS that she opposes the ban and suggested that the violence prior to the Netanyahu speech might have resulted from the event being closed to the public.

The university official said the three invited speakers had received copies of a lawyer’s letter that called on the CSU to cancel the event by noon Thursday. When it did not respond, the university decided it would go to court.

But Davies said she was not changing her plans. ”I’m assuming that the meeting is going to be held.”

CSU president Sabine Friesinger said the group was surprised that the university cancelled its booking of a room for the speeches earlier this week. The administration had known of their plans since October, she pointed out.

The CSU opposes the moratorium and believes that the tensions between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters should be brought into the open, she added.

”Israel and Palestine were always being discussed here before Sep. 9. Sometimes it got a little bit louder but there was never the type of chaos” seen at that time.

”Instead of going to court against us, I would call on management to lift the moratorium. It’s getting embarrassing,” said Friesinger.

Netanyahu’s speech was cancelled after pro-Palestinian protesters, including some non-students, rushed the doors to the hall, clashing with riot police who used batons and pepper spray to repel them.

Windows were broken and some people who gathered to hear the speech were reportedly assaulted.

Student demonstrations usually proceed peacefully at Canada’s universities, but Concordia in downtown Montreal, a city with large Jewish and Arab populations, has a reputation as one of the more radical institutions.

The university says 12 students face sanctions for the protests under its code of conduct, which could include suspension or expulsion.

The highly unusual ban on speeches, rallies, posters, exhibits and information tables about the Middle East has been controversial.

"Suppression of speech through violence, the threat of violence, or political intimidation is simply not acceptable," said Victor Catano, president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, in a recent statement.

"However irreconcilable the differences over the Middle East may be, no resolution is possible without the opportunity for all points of view to be heard and all arguments debated."

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal wrote Lowy, suggesting that if he did not invite Netanyahu back to the university it would "embolden those who see violence as the only way to achieve results”.

"To allow their violence and intimidation to succeed in silencing an important voice should be unacceptable to a university which promotes the values of freedom of speech and open exchange of ideas," added the letter.

The ban was later extended to include setting up information tables on any topic in the mezzanine of a major university building.

One student was disciplined for violating the ban. Police last month stopped CSU student vice-president Yves Engler from putting up an information table on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and escorted him out of the building.

The university official said the table ban had been lifted in recent weeks and that the moratorium on public discussion of the Middle East could be lifted prior to the Dec. 15 deadline.

”It has been putting pressure on us, but it’s also been generating incredible support,” the official said.

Nearly 30,000 students attend Concordia, most in undergraduate arts and sciences programmes.

CANADA: University that Banned Talk of Middle East Blocks MPs

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Nov 14 2002 (IPS) - Officials of a university that has banned all public discussion of the Middle East since a planned speech by a former Israeli leader was cancelled after clashes with police are going to court to block two politicians from speaking to students. – The two members of parliament, along with an activist — all known to support the Palestinian struggle for a homeland — were invited by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to speak Friday at Concordia University in Montreal.
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