Over the past few weeks, Concordia University has become a regular haunt for the SPVM! After calling the police to deescalate a fight which took place on November 8th, the University’s administration (perhaps wringing their hands, thinking of Concordia’s radical history) have been exceptionally quick to call them back any time there was the slightest whiff of a disturbance. Most recently, the police were called two times in two days in order to intimidate a single pro-Palestine activist.
After receiving an anonymous complaint that a student activist was displaying offensive and anti-semitic material, Concordia Security responded quickly. Confronting the student, they demanded that he leave the campus. The “anti-semitic material” in his possession was, however, nothing more than a white placard which read: “Look up these events, they will shock you” followed by a list of war crimes committed by the Israeli state and its predecessors over the last hundred years.
How exactly this sign represents “anti-semitic material” is frankly anybody’s guess—unless, like many Canadian politicians, businessmen and now apparently university administrators you fall into the camp of labeling any critique of the state of Israel as anti-semitism. In that case, only the mention of Israel’s daily genocidal carpet bombing of Gaza would also constitute “anti-semitic material”! Nevertheless, on these grounds the activist was told that he would have to leave the campus. When he refused, explaining to the security guards that his right to protest was protected under Concordia’s own Charter of Rights and Responsibilities, the chief of security called the police. When he returned to campus the following day, the police were called again.
This is only the latest case in a growing campaign of slander, censorship, and repression by the various representatives of Canadian imperialism. After the events of November 8th, politicians and media personalities swarmed on them like locusts on social media and in newspaper columns, equating the support for Palestinians by student activists with gunshots fired on Jewish schools in Montreal earlier that week (a very real hate crime!). A superior court judge recently passed an injunction against the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights student group on McGill’s campus and their “Policy against the Genocide in Palestine”. Even at Dawson College communists with Fightback trying to organize a public discussion on the history of the Palestinian resistance were shut down by their administration. To this we can add the censorship by the SPVM of one student activist and one 18×24 inch piece of cardboard.
More compelling, however, than the scenes of police officers descending once again on the Concordia’s campus were the greetings they received from Concordia’s students. Within minutes of arriving, the officers who had surrounded the pro-Palestine activist were themselves surrounded by dozens of students who videotaped, heckled, and chanted “police off campus” and “who do you protect?” According to one witness, when a female student shouted “you’re harassing students” an officer wearing a thin-blue-line patch on his uniform turned on her and shouted back “back away right now, or I’ll harass you.” The police were clearly not in control of the situation, and they were even forced to call for backup, bringing in a second car and two more officers for what was supposed to be a routine intimidation job.
In the end, the cops gave up on the original perpetrator and had to settle for his accomplice—the cardboard placard was ushered gruffly into the back of the police vehicle and taken to the precinct for questioning, but they did not dare touch its owner.
The events taking place in Palestine are causing a tidal wave of empathy and disgust here in Canada, especially among the youth. The anger in society is palpable. If we are to learn anything from the massive demonstrations of solidarity that have taken place across the country and the repression inflicted by the representatives of the ruling class it must be this: that we must rely on our own means. We are not outnumbered, we are outorganized.
We must resist and call out such shameful acts of repression with solidarity, mass protests and collective action. We must show the administrations of Concordia, McGill and Dawson, as well as the Zionists and SPVM that we will not be intimidated. The workers and youth in Canada and around the globe have the power to change society and to end once and for all the imperialist capitalist system which allows atrocities like those unfolding in Palestine to take place.
It is for this reason that Socialist Fightback is organizing a rally against the repression of pro-Palestine activists this Wednesday, December 13th at 1:00 p.m at the Maisonneuve Entrance to Dawson College. If you stand for the Palestinian cause and want to help organize against repression and for the overthrow of the treacherous capitalist system, then join us!
Intifada until victory!
