Reject State-Organized Attacks on the Right to Conscience, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association!
Universities are venues where the youth and faculty organize themselves to investigate and express their views on all matters of importance, including those related to Canada's role in the world and grave matters of war and peace. It is not a coincidence that federally the Harper government and now the Trudeau government have, for example, argued that youth and students should not be permitted to openly defend Palestinian human rights by using their speech to advocate for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine. A referendum passed by the vote of a majority of students at the University of Windsor in 2014 to have their student union divest "from companies that support or profit from Israeli war crimes, occupation and oppression" was denounced in Parliament by the Harper government. Subsequent to this and with threats from a wealthy patron to withdraw funding from the university, the student union was defunded by the University of Windsor. The Trudeau government too, upon its election in 2015, officially condemned the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as a form of anti-semitism and has made it clear that it does not want the youth to express their views on this matter on university and college campuses.
Similarly, in the name of individual freedom,
choice, and even
liberty, the Ford government and those who support its actions are
attempting to suppress the youth and others who are organizing
to resist its attacks on public services and social programs,
and
who uphold the principle that society has a responsibility to its
members that governments are duty-bound to fulfil. They target
for defamation those who resist -- like labour and student unions
and champions of the oppressed -- insinuating that they are mafia
bosses, criminals or "anti-semites," depending on the
circumstances, in an effort to deny the justness of their cause. It is
all to hide the government's real aim which is to silence those
who refuse to accept state-organized violations of the right to
conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of association. It is
important to oppose the aims of the government's Student Choice
Initiative, and not just based on whether it is legal or not. It
must be declared illegal because it is unjust and violates
rights! (Photos: TML)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Ontario Premier
Doug Ford's fundraising letter that shows
how it is targeting the political activities of students' unions
indicates that the aim the Ontario government has given itself is
to threaten and try to silence the collective dissent of college
and university youth and violate their right to conscience. This
comes at a time the government is waging an all-out assault on
public services that the youth require such as education and social
programs. B'nai Brith's intervention in support of the Ford
government's Student Choice Initiative, in the case brought against it
in the Ontario Court of Justice by the Canadian Federation of Students
and the York Federation of Students, shows that the agenda of
the Ford government is linked directly with attempts to silence
Canadian youth who want Canada to stand against Israel's
occupation of Palestine. These developments are consistent with
similar unacceptable attacks taking place in Alberta, where
Premier Jason Kenney has made claims of a defamatory nature about
the political views of a well-known University of Alberta
lecturer and unionist, Dougal MacDonald, a teacher in the
university's Faculty of Education.
The arguments now
put forward by B'nai Brith that
mandatory membership in students' unions violates the individual
rights of students who do not agree with their actions show that,
like the Ford government, they want to smash students' collective
defence organizations in the name of individual rights. As
self-proclaimed "staunch allies of Israel," are they supporting
the Ford government's initiative to try to silence or at least
interfere with students' ability to organize collectively against
Israel's occupation of Palestine? If so, does this not reveal the
anti-democratic nature of the initiative? It is no coincidence
that B'nai Brith's arguments are in fact the same as those being
put forward by the Ford government, that payment of membership
fees in students' unions should be a matter of "choice."