This announcement contains 3 items:
University of Windsor - The Demise Of Academic Freedom
Recommendations Directed to Presidents of Canadian Universities
Submissions to the Toronto Police Services Board
1. The University Of Windsor – The Demise Of Academic Freedom
Zionist students and faculty, including over 90% of Canadian Jews, are entitled to return to our university and college campuses in the fall:
Without fear of violence or intimidation,
Without being demonized for supporting Israel’s right to exist,
Without being ostracized or marginalized,
Without having to hide they are Jewish, or
Without having to disavow Zionism as a condition for access to campus spaces.
Ironically, some of the most strident advocates for freedom of expression have no interest in allowing Zionists to be heard on campus. They are against the suppression of speech – unless Jewish voices are the ones whose voices are being suppressed.
Enter the University of Windsor. To relieve itself from a continuing occupation by anti-Israel protestors on campus, the university administration struck a deal with the occupiers (otherwise known as the “Windsor Liberation Zone Team”) and the students’ alliance that should have been unconscionable to anyone who believes in academic freedom, institutional neutrality and respectful dialogue on controversial issues. Even academics who oppose Israel’s conduct should have been troubled by the idea that a university could dictate whether its faculty, scholars and researchers could work with foreign universities to advance their scholarship, to cure diseases, to build dialogue.
The Network of Engaged Canadian Academics (NECA), a non-partisan member of ALCCA, consists of over 300 professors from 45 Canadian universities and colleges who are dedicated to tackling antisemitism on campus while firmly committed to the promotion of academic freedom and viewpoint diversity. Its open letter to the University of Windsor’s Board of Governors, is a clear and unequivocal indictment of the agreements reached, and the demise of academic freedom, institutional neutrality and research integrity at the university. The university’s continuing partnership with a foreign university in a totalitarian state reinforces the obvious double standard applied to Israel. The university committed to writing to the federal government urging it to adopt the political position on the Middle East held by occupiers. Whether you agree or disagree with that political position, what authority could the university possible have in committing the institution to a political position respecting foreign policy? No wonder that the agreements are being hailed as the most “progressive” (ie the most radical) anywhere.
Call to Action for the General Public: Below is a link to NECA’s open letter. Circulate it broadly. Write to the Board of Governors and express your solidarity with NECA’s critical analysis.
Some Windsor alumni classes have also written to the Board of Governors expressing their strong disapproval of the agreements.
Call to Action for Windsor Alumni: If you are a Windsor alumni, Write to the Board of Governors expressing your disapproval:
Additionally, quite a few of our member organizations, in conjunction with our Universities and Colleges Committee, are working on a multi-pronged strategic response, addressing the current issues facing Jewish students on campus through political, legal and government advocacy. Members of the Alliance are also actively working to prepare for and address the many issues we anticipate will arise when the new term begins.
2. Recommendations Directed to Presidents of Canadian Universities
This week, MP Anthony Housefather and Special Envoy Deborah Lyons released an open letter to Presidents of 28 universities across Canada. The letter identified a series of critically important recommendations aimed at combatting antisemitism on Canadian campuses in the upcoming year. These recommendations were made with the cooperation of five organizations, including ALCCA, CIJA and NECA, two of its members, as well as B’nai Brith Canada and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (Canada). Please read this letter, reproduced in English and in French:
Call to Action: Write to the President of each Canadian university you attended and urge them to commit the university to the recommendations in NECA's open letter.
List of University Presidents & Emails
3. Submissions to the Toronto Police Services Board
On August 14, I participated as a speaker in CIJA’s Community Safety Update about the Toronto Police Service Board consultation on Public Order. The Board has invited submissions from the public on its Public Order policy on or before August 30.
On Tuesday, August 20, please visit ALCCA’s website for recommendations on how you can respond to the Toronto Police Service Board’s invitation.
About the Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.
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