Last week, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute hosted a webinar in support of students at Montreal’s McGill University who have faced backlash over their pro-Palestine activism.
This past academic year, five student associations at universities across Canada passed resolutions supporting elements of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which promotes the use of economic action against Israel over their treatment of the Palestinian people.
According to activist, moderator of the webinar, and the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, Bianca Mugyenyi, all of these cases resulted in attacks from Canada’s network of anti-Palestinian organizations. The backlash from the McGill administration was “particularly fierce.”
The Struggles of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill
Despite over 70 per cent of McGill students voting in favour of a Palestine Solidarity Policy, which would commit the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) to oppose Israel’s system of discrimination, the pro-Palestine student supporters faced months of attacks from their school’s administration.
Sarah, a speaker from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, explained the hardships that dedicated students and SPHR members like herself endured as they promoted the referendum’s importance to other McGill students.
“We were handing out flyers for nearly the entire duration of the campaign, when we weren’t being harassed or spat on by zionist student body members – and yes that did happen, multiple times,” said Sarah.
Following this referendum in March, the pro-Israeli group B’nai B’rith called on McGill administration to cut funding to the SSMU as they labelled the student union’s behaviour as antisemitic. The university’s administration effectively threatened to do so and quickly sent an email to the entire staff and student body at McGill which “threatened to terminate the memorandum of agreement with the student association.”
As the McGill administration continued to block and discredit the widely-supported Palestine Solidarity Policy, McGill students in support of the policy protested their school’s decision. Over 200 students took part in an emergency rally in the following weeks. SPHR McGill organizers continued to protest and urged students to denounce the backlash in emails to their administration.
“It’s really an issue of human rights and anti-colonial justice,” said Sarah. “Nothing good will ever come from a colonial institution like McGill weaponizing the issues of antisemitism or Islamophobia.”
On April 22, the backlash from the McGill administration caused the SSMU to declare that they had the authority to overturn the results of any democratic student vote. In an unprecedented move for the student union, the SSMU board refused to ratify and implement the Palestine Solidarity Policy.
As a form of protest, SPHR McGill published parodies of the board’s decision. Citing these parodies as harassment, the SSMU board suspended SPHR McGill from their student union for 105 days. Due to the suspension, the SSMU deprived SPHR McGill of funding, resources and even refused to promote last week’s webinar.
Despite the pushback from their administration and the SSMU, SPHR McGill has begun implementing the student-approved policy on its own through boycotts and other student-run initiatives.
Roger Waters speaks out
Rock legend and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, a long-time advocate of Palestinian rights, listened attentively to the struggles of SPHR McGill and the supporters of the policy.
When asked what support he’d like to see for those McGill students who feel that their freedom of speech has been violated, Waters told rabble.ca that he hopes they will soon be treated with “the same equal human rights, under the law, as anyone else.”
“They should not be denied those human rights simply because they’re going against the zionist, colonialist, fascist settler movement that is happening in the occupied territories in Palestine every day,” said Waters.
The musician also explained how his pro-Palestine activism had been met with criticism before. He mentioned a specific time that he performed to a crowd of young people in a small town in Israel. Waters said that the audience was so engaged and happy to see him; until the mood shifted dramatically once he made a short speech about Palestinian rights.
“They were completely silent from that moment on. This was a huge revelation for me,” said Waters.
Yet, backlash from people who disagree with his politics doesn’t bother Waters. The rock legend made it clear that he intends to continue using his platform for activism against human rights violations.
“Our voice is getting louder and louder. This choir that is here on this screen now is raising its voice and we are singing louder, and louder, and louder,” said Waters. “And we will prevail. And we shall overcome in this struggle against the governing bodies at McGill University.”
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