Student encampments for Gaza are welcome on Indigenous land

 

Student protesters are standing up for peace, and opposing genocide. Violently repressing them is a betrayal of our democratic ideals

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.”

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.  (more...)

Student encampments for Gaza are welcome on Indigenous land

Mohawk leader Ellen Gabriel to McGill student encampment: You are welcome on our land!
Wearing a keffiyeh, Gabriel called out McGill and Corcordia's complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, and gave the student encampment permission to stay on the land. pic.twitter.com/1bW4g22l1D

— SPHR McGill (@McgillSphr) May 3, 2024