YUFA
Free Speech
From Sea to Sea, Canadian
Faculty Associations Condemn York Administration’s Response to the
Anti-Bush Demonstration
1 Mar 05
– In open letters, Canadian faculty
associations have condemned the Administration’s response to the
anti-Bush demonstration on January 20, 2005.
Click on the following to learn what YUFA’s colleagues across Canada think:
AUFA
Athabasca University Faculty Association
1 University Drive
Athabasca AB T9S 3A3
Telephone: (780) 675-6282
Fax: (780) 675-6182
email address:
aufahq@athabascau.ca
February 16, 2005
Dr. Lorna Marsden
President
York University
Dear Dr. Marsden:
The Athabasca University Faculty Association is appalled at the actions of York University in stifling free speech during the student demonstration against American globalization policies and against corporations represented on the Board of Governors and the York Foundation.
Our understanding is that an employee in your office summoned the Toronto police on the grounds that these students were trespassing on university property. The actions of the police were reprehensible, but the actions of your office in calling the police were equally appalling.
Further, your actions in trying curtail freedom of speech through various administrative procedures is something that cannot be condoned. Indeed, we usually expect this sort of behaviour from countries where freedom of speech is routinely denied.
Universities should be bastions of inquiry, dialogue and the search for truth. The only way this can be fostered is through openness and the encouragement of free speech in all its forms and this includes demonstrations. We understand that bringing a guest speaker into a course cannot be done without filling out an extensive form and receiving permission.
York has in the past been considered one of Canada’s leading institutions. Sadly, because of your high handed and arbitrary administrative barriers to freedom of expression, this is no longer the case. We strongly support the York University Faculty Association and the students in their fight to end this oppression and urge you to reconsider your actions.
Yours truly,
Linda Bonneville, President
Athabasca University Faculty Association
Dr Lorna Marsden,
President York University
Dear Dr Marsden
At its meeting Feb 7, 2005 the UBC Faculty Association Executive voted unanimous support for the defense of free speech, academic freedom and freedom of expression at York University.
We urge the administration to reverse immediately recent decisions which remove such rights at the York University campus. The free flow of expression is key to a university environment, and a University Administration has no right to limit free expression unless there are clear violations of the law. In our opinion such violations were not apparent in the recent events at York.
Yours sincerely,
Elliott Burnell
President of UBC Faculty Association
cc: YUFACUPE 3903
400 – 550 West 6th Ave. Vancouver, BC V5Z 1A1 tel 604.873.8988 fax 604 873.8865 www.fpse.ca
Dr.
Lorna Marsden
President
York University
By e-mail: presidnt@yorku.ca
Dear Dr. Marsden:
On behalf of 8,000 faculty and staff at British Columbia’s colleges, university-colleges, and institutes, I write to express our dismay at your administration’s recent attempts to quash the right to free speech at York University.
The right to free speech is the cornerstone of academic freedom and critical to the project of a university. Without the right to speak freely, intellectual inquiry is curtailed and academic freedom becomes meaningless. The history of protest on university campuses in Canada is venerable, and I am dismayed to see the extent to which your administration has sought to curtail the right to protest.
Your institution is publicly funded. In declaring the University private property, not only does your administration abrogate the right to protest, it also has the potential to limit the University’s role in the broader community. While a university’s primary community is its students and its employees, it also plays a role in the broader community as a site of knowledge and information. Your administration’s actions potentially abrogate that role as well.
I urge you to reconsider your recent policy changes aimed at quelling protest. You have generated the academic equivalent of martial law at York, and I urge you to consider the chilling effect that has on intellectual inquiry and its community of learners.
Sincerely,
Cindy Oliver
President
Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC
cc.
Nick Lary, York University Faculty Association
CUPE 3903
York University
Jim Turk, Canadian Association of University Teachers
CUPE1004: 05.02.09 cs\t:co\ltrs\york050209
Dr.
Lorna Marsden
E-mail: presidnt@yorku.ca
President
York University
5949 Ross Building
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON
M3J 1P3
Dear Dr. Marsden:
We were appalled to learn of the manner in which your administration handled the anti-American student protest on January 20, 2005. We are even more disturbed at learning of the measures you have taken to suppress free speech and academic freedom at your university.
Free speech is a right enshrined in the Canadian constitution. It is our view, and one that is shared by many Canadians, that universities should be the champions of free speech. This is true even if what is said by those who exercise this right differs from what is believed by those who should be the guardians of this right, that is university administrations, and especially the one person who is often seen as the representative of the university, namely its president.
Imposing severe limitations on public meetings and instituting unreasonable regulations to govern the conduct of public debate violate fundamental principles of Canadian society. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to abolish the egregious regulations you have put in place, and return the possibility of open debate in all spaces, public and private, on the campus of your university.
Sincerely,
Dr.
William Schipper
President, MUNFA
Lorna R. Marsden
President and Vice-Chancellor
York University
S949 Ross Building
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Dear Dr. Marsden:
I am writing to you on behalf of the McMaster University Faculty Association. We wish to express our concern about a recent incident at York University involving police being brought on campus to deal with an otherwise peaceful student demonstration. On the basis of information received from a number of sources both within and outside of York University, it is our understanding that the York Administration limited student access to a common, public area at the University. It is also our understanding that when students occupied this space in order to express their disapproval of President George W. Bush, the police were called to intervene. We further understand that there were a number of arrests and injuries.
It seems extraordinary that in 2005 these events could have occurred on the campus of a Canadian public university. Universities are communities in which the right to speak freely is to be encouraged, not suppressed. Providing space in areas that are central to university life and student movement is an important responsibility of a university’s administration. Efforts to discourage or prohibit the use of such space are to be deplored.
The right to speak freely notwithstanding, all members of the university must be respectful of the rights and responsibilities of other members. Our understanding is that the decision to limit student access to the space in question was founded on concerns that the noise created was disruptive to classes underway in adjacent rooms. If this was the case, an understanding must be reached between student, faculty and administration representatives to ensure their respective rights and responsibilities are reconciled. This must be done through discourse in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. Reconciliation is impossible if the York Administration views police intervention as a means of ensuring its position will prevail. We trust that the York Administration will not follow this course again.
Sincerely yours,
Trevor Chamberlain,
MUFA President
To: Lorna
Marsden, President, York University
From: Stefan Bilaniuk, President, Trent University Faculty Association (TUFA)
Re: Freedom of expression at York University
Date: 2005.01.31
Dear Dr. Marsden,
TUFA has been contacted by the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) in the wake of the demonstration at York University on 20 January that ended in violence when police were called in to break it up, and asked for help in opposing actions taken by the Administration at York University that limit the freedom of expression of faculty and students. I have read the statements put up by YUFA and the Administration on their web sites concerning this incident as well as number of media reports. Given the conflicting nature of these sources, I cannot determine how the violence began. However, all the sources I consulted seem to be consistent with the assertion that the demonstration, while possibly loud and disruptive, was peaceful until the police who had been summoned by the Administration intervened to end it. I find it deplorable that the leadership of a university with a commitment to academic freedom (witness Article 10.1 of the
Collective Agreement between YUFA and York University), which requires freedom of expression to be meaningful, should consider it appropriate to bring in police to break up a peaceful demonstration.
YUFA has also brought a number of institutional obstacles to freedom of expression, and hence academic freedom, at York University to our attention:
1. The decision to treat all space at the university as private space. This seems perverse in light of the fact that the bulk of York's funding comes from the public in the form of government funding and tuition fees from the students who may be held to be trespassing if they do not conform to the Administrations wishes.
2. The requirement that permission must be obtained to bring in guest speakers to York, including guest speakers in a course. This would seem to contradict Article 10.1 in the Collective Agreement between York University and YUFA, which states, in part, that "Academic freedom includes the freedom ... to examine, question, teach, ..." and "to be free from institutional censorship."
3. The requirement that permission be obtained for any demonstration. This is especially onerous given the requirement that permission be obtained thirty days in advance, preventing timely responses to events to events.
4. The requirement that permission be obtained to distribute leaflets. This is also especially onerous given the requirement that permission be obtained twenty days in advance, preventing interested parties from responding to events in a timely fashion, and because of the requirement that the leaflets be submitted in advance, which raises the possibility of censorship by the University. So far as faculty are concerned, this also contradicts the part of Article 10.1 which says that academic freedom includes the right "to be free from institutional censorship."
5. The arbitrary imposition of regulations without even consulting those affected, as well as the inconsistent application of the posted procedures for dealing with infractions of those regulations. At best, the former is impolite and the latter dumb; the worst I leave to you to imagine.
I urge you to reconsider these policies and the reasoning that led to the decision to summon police to end a peaceful demonstration. They are unworthy of a modern university committed to academic freedom.
If there is any help or further comment which I may be able to provide, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours,
Stefan Bilaniuk
President, Trent University Faculty Association
Stefan Bilaniuk
Department of Mathematics
office: Gzowksi College Room 337
Trent University
Peterborough, Ontario
Canada K9J 7B8
phone: (705) 748-1011 x7474
e-mail:
sbilaniuk@trentu.ca
web: euclid.trentu.ca/math/sb/
cc: YUFA, CUPE 3903, TUFA Executive, Bonnie Patterson (President, Trent University)
That is disturbing news which you have conveyed to us via CAUT. York University receives public funding and yet it acts as if it is a private institution. What happened at York could conceivably happen anywhere at any university in Canada. We seem to be moving more and more toward a police state with the rights of individuals being trampled on, starting with the Peppergate incident, as it was named, involving our previous Prime Minister. I intend to forward your email to the members of the Lakehead University Faculty Association for further consideration and action. Thank you for raising this situation, which is an affront to the right to free speech and the role of a university to question and voice opinions, whether those opinions agree with Administration or not.
Diana Pallen, President, LUFA
Please find attached an electronic copy of a letter I am sending to you on behalf of the Saint Mary’s University Faculty Union. As a longtime admirer of your activism and accomplishments in the struggle for equality rights for women I am surprised that you are now defending the same arguments and tactics used to prevent women from mobilizing and presenting their case. We urge you to consult again with all stakeholders on the York Campus and with other academic associations to reach a new consensus on how to promote and defend fundamental freedoms on a diverse and engaged university campus.
Thank you for receiving this letter (I have mailed a signed copy of it to you) and for your kind consideration of its contents.
Sincerely,
Leonard Preyra
Chair, Department of Political Science, Saint Mary’s University
Past President, Saint Mary’s University Faculty Union
Dr. Lorna Marsden
President
York University
Ross Building, S949
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1P3
Dear Dr. Marsden:
The University of Toronto Faculty Association affirms its belief that students and faculty have the right to assemble peacefully and demonstrate so long as the demonstration does not interfere with the teaching and learning activities of the university and that it firmly supports academic freedom for faculty members at all Canadian Universities.
Sincerely,
George Luste
President
February 1, 2005
Dear Dr. Marsden:
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, representing 13,000 professors and academic librarians in the province’s universities, has become alarmed by your administration’s increasing curtailment of freedom of expression on campus.
The recent events pertaining to the January 20, 2005 demonstration of York students underscores OCUFA’s growing concern. That the Toronto police were called to disperse a peaceful demonstration, and the force used to do so, as evidenced by videotapes of the event, was unwarranted and unnecessary.
Unfortunately, it would appear that this event is but the most recent example of your administration’s restrictions on freedom of expression at York. Administrative conditions and limitations on demonstrations and the distribution of leaflets, the levying of security fees, and the surveillance of some students involved in demonstrations serve to create a chill on freedom of expression at the university.
Regulations concerning demonstrations would appear to have been changed without discussion or negotiation with the affected parties. At the same time, the posted procedures for the disciplining of those who allegedly violate regulations are not followed. In June 2004, OCUFA wrote to you expressing its concern about the very long suspension of York University student Daniel Freeman-Maloy. OCUFA was particularly concerned about the procedures used to determine his suspension. It was strongly felt that the posted Presidential Regulations which specify a fair and impartial hearing and an appeals process (Regulations #2 and #3) should have been followed in the Freeman-Maloy case. The Ontario Divisional Court ruling in this case, and the subsequent reinstatement of Freeman-Maloy, justified OCUFA’s concern.
Freedom of speech, and academic freedom in general, have been the result of many hard-fought struggles on university campuses over the past half-century. These freedoms are the underpinnings of our universities. We send the wrong message to our students, and to the public, when those freedoms are limited by administrative fiat, free expression is forcefully curtailed, and the right to due process is treated cavalierly.
Like the York University Faculty Association and other student and staff organizations on campus, OCUFA urges your administration to respect the right of freedom of expression, including support for the right of students to organize and to participate in peaceful political protest. Furthermore, we ask that York administration take no action against the students arrested in the January 20, 2005 demonstration and the charges laid against them by police be dropped.
Sincerely,
Michael Doucet,
Ph.D
President