Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest are under attack by political leaders trying to silence legitimate voices of dissent on university and college campuses across Turtle Island. Not since the 1960’s, when repression of student protests against the Vietnam War resulted in four deaths at Kent State, have we witnessed the level of state violence against student protestors that we are seeing now.
As violence directed towards peaceful student protestors by state authorities ramps up, many have expressed outrage at the brutality inflicted upon students, alumni, and even faculty members.
At McGill University, the administration is seeking a court injunction that would force police to remove and arrest student protesters. In documents filed in court, McGill details their efforts to convince Montreal police to clear the protest encampment — efforts that were rebuffed by the police because the “criteria for a police intervention were not met.” Instead, McGill has asserted, the police urged them to “resolve the situation peacefully… principally through dialogue.”
As title holders to the land, the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples must constantly remind entities like McGill University, that they have built their institutions upon our unceded homelands and that as rights holders, we have the authority over our lands.
This answer was not satisfactory for McGill’s administration, who are now asking a judge to grant an injunction that would force police to raid the protest. Should universities really be more eager to see the blood of their students spilled in a violent confrontation than the police?
McGill has also argued that its grounds, while open to the public, are private property. But to whom does that property really belong?
As title holders to the land, the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples must constantly remind entities like McGill University, that they have built their institutions upon our unceded homelands and that as rights holders, we have the authority over our lands.
Young people are justifiably enraged by the mass slaughter of Palestinians, which the global community has been witnessing live on social media for the past seven months. In January, the International Court of Justice found it to be “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention. The ICJ’s call for provisional measures to ensure the safety of Palestinians in Gaza continues to be ignored by Israel and its Western backers.
Genocide is illegal under international law, as is complicity in a genocide. Every state has legal obligations to uphold, and a duty to defend these standards. This is part of the rule of law that politicians so often claim to uphold.
Students with their sharp young minds can clearly see the hypocrisy of their institutions, and of their governments.
The Geneva Conventions state that civilians, the sick or wounded, and certain institutions must be protected. The killing of babies, children and their families is not normal. It is deeply immoral, and taints the foundations of a society.
Unable to accept the complicity of their institutions in the genocide in Gaza, students are now leading the charge to stand up for peace, human rights, and freedom. The youth leading this revolutionary movement are reminding the world of a fundamental truth: that killing and starving babies, children, and their families is a crime against humanity.
For decades, Western leaders have knowingly stood by and allowed Palestine to become a laboratory for weapons testing. Investments in weapons manufacturers have generated huge profits for governments, and private industry. The students’ response has been to call on their universities to divest from the war profiteers and weapon-makers profiting from the carnage in Gaza.
April 28 marked the 56th anniversary of the Vietnam War protests at Columbia University. It is once again at Columbia University where anti-war student protests have inspired another generation of youth.
The students are taking a stand for peace. But politicians who wield the political power to stop the genocide in Gaza are instead attacking them, through their rhetoric and through the police violence they encourage and unleash.
This is an attempt to silence protest. This is totalitarianism.
The students have remained focused on the children of Gaza and their future, because their morals prohibit them from accepting the complicity of their universities in profiting off weapons of war.
The politicians claim that they are standing up for public safety and the rule of law. The opposite is true. They are allowing grave violations of human rights to be committed with impunity, while shutting down peaceful, protected freedom of speech.
Governments and many institutions, like universities, invest and have spent billions of dollars on arms — which do not bring peace, but instead endless war.
We should all be thankful to the students who are standing up for justice and demanding a permanent ceasefire to save the lives of innocent Palestinians.
The students have remained focused on the children of Gaza and their future, because their morals prohibit them from accepting the complicity of their universities in profiting off weapons of war.
Divestment is a simple request, and while universities might be reluctant to see their revenues drop, it will send the message that we as a society should be investing in peace, not war.
Human rights advocates state that you cannot sit on your hands when rights are at stake. It is not enough to have rights on paper. We must all be vigilant to ensure those rights are never taken away — political and financial power must never infringe on the universality of human rights.
The youth of today are wiser than those who prioritize money and colonialism over democracy and justice. Over the past seven months, if you have not been moved to tears by what is unfolding in Gaza, then where is your humanity?
The structure of apartheid and colonialism imposed upon an Indigenous population is reminiscent of days gone by when human rights were barely understood, and violence by the state against Indigenous peoples who resist land dispossession was normalized.
Francesca Albanese is an international lawyer and, since 2022, has served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She has repeatedly reminded the world of “the Palestine exception,” tactics used to silence advocacy for Palestinian rights. The exception is seen clearly through the double standards when it pertains to Palestinian human rights.
The structure of apartheid and colonialism imposed upon an Indigenous population is reminiscent of days gone by when human rights were barely understood, and violence by the state against Indigenous peoples who resist land dispossession was normalized. These very same systems have been allowed to flourish for the economic security of Western states and remain at the root of the current violence.
Every Palestinian that demands that their rights be respected and upheld is now considered by most Western states to be a criminal, a threat to security, and even a terrorist. Just as Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island have been and continue to be seen by the settler colonizer.
The “exception,” is now being applied to students across Turtle Island, and beyond. These blatant double standards must no longer be accepted. They must be challenged if we are to ever achieve the goal of peace.
Alex Neve, the former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, wrote an open letter to Jacques Frémont, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa on May 1, about the dangerous precedent being set in regards to freedom of expression and the right to protest.
In this open letter, Neve wrote:
In 2020, “the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights… dealing with the right of peaceful assembly… notes that ‘any restrictions on participation in peaceful assemblies should be based on a differentiated or individualized assessment of the conduct of the participants and the assembly concerned. Blanket restrictions on peaceful assemblies are presumptively disproportionate.’”
The ICCPR goes on to say: “…civil and political freedom and freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his civil and political rights, as well as his economic, social and cultural rights.”
The universality of human rights is a foundational pillar in all aspects of a free and democratic society. The Palestine exception instead makes clear that human rights are only for the chosen few, and only if those few share the ideology of those in power.
The mistakes of previous generations have imposed a heavy burden on youth and future generations. They must face the reality of a deepening climate crisis and rising fascism around the world. We are also burdening them with an unfettered capitalistic society that is fundamentally at odds with the right of people to live in a safe and secure environment. Should we now also tell them that their opinions only matter, that their rights to free speech and public protest will only be protected, when they toe the line?
Students and any person of conscience can see that killing, starving, carpet bombing those who cannot defend themselves, especially the most vulnerable — women, children and babies — is not just terrible and tragic; it is barbaric and inhumane.
Just as the establishment of all colonial states on Turtle Island (the Americas) is founded on the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the truth must be told about settler colonialism and how it has shaped the world… for the worst may be yet to come.
The students who have been setting up encampments are incredibly lucid and clear-eyed. As such, they must be protected on our lands as they strive for human rights for all Palestinians. Peace can only be achieved when we sit, discuss and when all peoples are treated equally, with the same universal human rights and democratic freedoms granted to all inhabitants of the land.
The Palestine exception instead makes clear that human rights are only for the chosen few, and only if those few share the ideology of those in power.
Students are not asking for much. They are the leaders calling for peace, and demanding these institutions divest from the producers of weapons of war that are responsible for the horrific images we are seeing in Gaza.
What are universities and colleges for, if not to nurture their youth and future leaders? Their ability to learn, to inquire, to be curious, and to critique are the shining achievements of any institution of higher learning. These same qualities are now being threatened by the state violence happening on campuses.
I have spoken of human rights standards, and the danger of selectively applying these standards. Human rights obligations apply not only to governments, but should also apply to institutions of all kinds, and to the citizens of the world, including the media and universities.
In asking universities and colleges to respect the right of students to speak out, we are asking these institutions to live up to their own legal and moral obligations — to show even a modicum of the leadership that has been demonstrated by the youth.
No peace on stolen land is more than just a slogan. It is, for all its implications, a challenge to the world order that freedom from want, peace, and respect for human dignity should be a universal right. It will never be won by wars, but instead collective change. We have an obligation to this generation to forge a legacy that treasures its youth, and its ability to respect differences and promote peace, justice, and human rights without punishment.
Freedom for Palestine is freedom for us all.
Skén:nen – wishing you peace
