Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘uqam’

It’s lunacy on parade all over again, as Quebec student agitators take to the streets to protest the cardinal Quebec government sin of replacing bursaries with loans (i.e. making people actually pay back their handouts… gasp!). And in the usual fashion, the protestors are acting with reckless disregard for personal safety, property, or even the interests of the students they’re supposedly defending, as they wreak havoc all over town:

A five-hour blockade at the Port of Montreal ended yesterday in a standoff with riot police and the arrest of six students protesting against cuts to financial aid.

The typical accusations of “police provocation” on the part of the student shit-disturbers followed, of course.

It goes beyond mere rock throwing and idiocy, though. Votes to strike at several university campuses are threatening the semesters of students who actually want to attend class. Most of my friends are absolutely livid that their semesters may be delayed or even cancelled. To quote one friend at UQAM:

Now the students are saying they don’t give a d*mn if our term is cancelled. I am really pissed at them, and considering suing my student association. If it is cancelled, I want my $1000 back. It is not by throwing that much money out the window that we are “helping future generations”… And then these idiots throw rocks at policemen and block streets.

But the union leaders and protest agitators don’t actually give a crap about the students they’re supposed to represent. None of them care about losing out on class time, since few if any actually ever set foot in a classroom. None of them care about graduating since they don’t actually intend to ever graduate. None of them care about the effect of a delayed semester on summer or other job prospects, because none of them actually ever intend to get a job. Never mind that Quebec university tuition is so cheap, they could pay it off easily if they actually got a job instead of spending their days throwing rocks at police. Where’s the fun in that?

It’s all well and good to try to protect students against spiraling or unreasonable tuition hikes. But things have gotten way out of control. The tuition freeze is crippling Quebec education, but no government can lift it without paying a severe political price. This has disastrous long-term effects on the health of Quebec’s economy and society in general. Accessible education is one thing; accessible quality education is another altogether. If the student agitators get their way, Quebec will have free education that’s completely, utterly useless, creating an entire generation of people who intend on living off the backs of the state.

Unfortunately, the students who understand this basic fact are disorganized and lack a powerful political voice. So as the strikes and protests continue, who is going to stand up for the rights of students who actually want an education?

After Concordia allowed the Netanyahu riot to set a precedent by initially not allowing Ehud Barak to speak, it seems free speech is now only a privilege of the side of rioters. A planned speech by US Ambassador Paul Cellucci at UQÀM was cancelled for “security concerns”:

Following on Concordia University’s decision last month to call off a speech by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, the Universite du Quebec a Montreal yesterday cancelled an address by the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci.

Cellucci was to have spoken at 2 p.m. yesterday at a conference organized by the Raoul Dandurand chair in strategic and diplomatic studies.

[ . . . ]

Nobody was able to say what the nature of the security risk was, but this week a group calling itself Bloquez l’empire (Block the Empire) sent out a statement by e-mail urging Montrealers to rally to “stop Cellucci from speaking.”

The University claimed that RCMP and US Security Officials recommended cancellation. But spokespeople from both deny that claim, and say the decision was made by the University.

The violence-rules contingent is crowing over their success:

Cellucci represents a regime whose ambitions to political and economic domination are expressed ruthlessly, but have the merit, at least, of being openly acknowledged. His legitimacy, especially after the concerns raised about election fraud in the US, should not be recognised. The only place Cellucci should be allowed to speak is before a tribunal, trying him for complicity with crimes against humanity.

The cancellation is a minor victory, and a little indication of what can be done – especially around the coming visit of Bush to Ottawa (30 November-1 December).

If this keeps up, it will kill free speech everywhere. Mob rule is being permitted far too much success. Eventually, only one viewpoint will be represented: that of the groups willing to resort to violence to suppress all speech besides theirs.

Concordia has set a very dangerous precedent. What people need to realize is that yesterday, it was an Israeli former PM who wasn’t allowed to speak. Today, it was a US ambassador. Tomorrow, it may be your speech that’s suppressed.

This is an issue that affects us all.

His scheduled speech was initially cancelled, but the university reversed its decision two days later.

Cim Nunn, a spokesman at York, said that while Mr. Pipes attracts strong opinions, and students likely would protest against him, the university is a place for free expression.

“We wouldn’t move forward with this event if we weren’t satisfied that we were going to be able to do so in a way that ensured that everybody participating was going to be able to do so safely,” Mr. Nunn said.

The public lecture was to take place at the Student Centre’s restaurant, the Underground, but it was cancelled when a number of student groups expressed concerns.

In other words, York was afraid of turning into the next Concordia. It wanted to avoid a riot. So it initially caved to pressure and cancelled the speech.

Granted, the Middle Eastern Students Association spokesperson claimed that he would urge students to protest “peacefully”. But then, the CSU and the SPHR claimed that the Netanyahu protest would be peaceful, too.

The tactic of the anti-Israel contingent to try to shut down any speech they disagree with is seemingly common. Daniel Pipes has been un-invited from several campuses across North America recently.

Pipes, best known for his site Campus Watch, where he monitors antisemitism on campuses, is persona non grata to many of Israel’s greatest critics. And, as with Netanyahu, they’ve decided that any speech that doesn’t fit with their politics shouldn’t be heard, and they threaten violence in every instance in effort to get most of them shut down.

Luckily, some universities are coming to their senses. Université de Québec à Montréal reversed a decision back in December and allowed a scheduled speech by journalist Gideon Kouts to go ahead, after initially shutting it down due to threats. And now, Daniel Pipes will be allowed to speak at York University after all.

It looks like universities are learning, albeit slowly, that caving to threats of violence is to let violence win. Academic freedom can only exist if everyone has a voice.

Speaking of the Gazette, yesterday’s editorial about antisemitism on campus is highly worth a look. It argues that UQÀM was right to allow Gideon Kouts’s scheduled speech to go ahead, but that should not lull us into a false sense of security. Hatred is alive and well on campuses, even when disguised as something else – or when very thinly disguised, as was the case at Concordia on September 9th.

UQÀM officials would doubtless protest – without question truthfully – that they haven’t an anti-Semitic bone in their bodies. And yet they evidently failed to discern the larger pattern: Kouts, after all, is not the only prominent Israeli recently prevented from speaking at a Montreal (read: Canadian) university. In September, glass-smashing thugs silenced former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Concordia.

Apologists quickly absolved the pro-Palestinian hooligans responsible for the window breaking. Blame, they argued, belonged to Mr. Netanyahu for being so controversial. Concordia, they maintained, was at fault for letting such a controversial politician speak. No violent controversy would have occurred, they insisted, had the university foreseen the security risk inherent in Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance.

Mob violence, in other words, wasn’t the fault of the violent mob. Responsibility, rather, was placed on those who saw no reason for a mob or violence. Windows were smashed because the university failed to install glass strong enough to resist pounding fists.

Sounds an awful lot like Jaggi Singh’s arguments, doesn’t it?

The university reversed its original decision, made Friday, and Gideon Kouts will be allowed to speak today as originally scheduled.

But the following may shed some light into why the university cancelled the planned talk in the first place:

Desmarais said the university received two threatening phone calls after posters advertising Kouts’s talk were put up around campus on Wednesday.

The anonymous callers threatened the event with the same type of violence that marred the anti-Netanyahu protest.

“Suddenly, some people became very tense at UQÀM,” Desmarais said. “It was asked, ‘Are we going to have the same things happen here that we saw elsewhere?’ – namely Concordia.”

Kudos to UQÀM for not giving into this kind of bald-faced blackmail. And to the cowards who made those calls, if you’re out there, know this: We have no tolerance for your kind of mob rule here in Canada. This is a free and open society and even people you disagree with have the right to be heard.

Thought it was just Concordia, did you? Well, now the Université de Québec à Montréal is throwing its hat into the ring of anti-Israel universities. The Gazette reports that a scheduled talk by Israeli journalist Gideon Kouts has been cancelled. The stated reasons are technical problems in space booking and “complaints over ads for the event”. In other words, the pro-Palestinian lobby put pressure on the university to shut this down, and it caved.

(Kouts) said he is surprised and more than a little mystified by the university’s decision to scrap his appearance. “I’m not inciting anyone. I’ve never killed anyone. I’m just a journalist and a university professor who was coming to talk to Jewish and non-Jewish students about my experience (in Beirut),” said Kouts, who was to speak tomorrow.

Hillel’s ads for the event consisted of posters and handbills showing a Star of David with a slash through it, and the words “De Durban à Beyrouth, l’exclusion d’Israel et des juifs”. Looks like Montreal has to be added to that list now too.

Kouts is the same journalist who had his credentials revoked at the Francophonie Summit last October for being Israeli and filing reports with an Israeli TV station. Anyone in Lebanon with Israeli nationality is subject to arrest and deportation. So Kouts is no stranger to controversy. But he’s still perplexed at the turn of events at UQÀM.

“In my mind, it’s censorship. It astounds me that this could happen in a free city like Montreal . . . I’ve never had this happen in France or in any Arab country I’ve visited,” Kouts said.

Kouts will deliver his speech at the Federation CJA Building instead, but won’t have the opportunity to address students.

This is a clear case of censorship and the repression of the right to free speech. Just like at Concordia, pro-Israel speakers and students at UQÀM are having their rights trampled on. This needs to be fought wherever and whenever it happens.