Canadian College Tries to Put a Lid on Discussion About MidEast

In today's Montreal Gazette. Please do write Ms. Montgomery. Her e-mail
is: SMontgomery [at] thegazette.Southam.ca

and her phone number is: 514 987-2491

Concordia just asking for trouble
Ban extended on Middle east activities. Angry students react to perceived
attack on freedom of expression

SUE MONTGOMERY
The Gazette
Thursday, September 19, 2002

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/columnists/story.asp?id=D6E8E6CB-9F14-4705-A84F-726D76D00676

The administration at Concordia University extended its ban on all
activities to do with the Middle East to three months yesterday, coming
across as some patriarch ordering naughty children to go to their rooms
for a collective time-out until they can play nicely.

As news of the ban trickled through the Hall Building, Solidarity for
Palestinian Human Rights quietly dismantled its information table, packing
key chains, leaflets and posters into cardboard boxes, but there were
muttered promises of mobilization.

Many students reacted in anger and frustration, accusing the board of
governors of stifling freedom of expression. A few in-your-face arguments
broke out between individuals in the Hall Building main floor - a regular
occurrence for months now in a university where emotions and tensions
can't possibly be contained simply by declaring a ban on activities.

Nor should they be. A university, of all places, should be a haven for
lively debate, where people feel passionate about issues and are free to
express themselves openly. This so-called cooling-off period undermines
the very purpose of a university to foster diversity of opinion.

Yesterday, hundreds of police officers decked out in full riot gear stood
at the ready just up the hill on the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts. Du
Musée Ave. was jammed with 28 police cars and vans.

Their mission was clear: descend quickly and decisively on the university
should all hell break loose. Mercifully, the call to the police never came
and all was quiet, at least for now.

But there is a growing sense among students, faculty and staff, especially
since the disastrous outcome of the aborted speech by former Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, that the administration is either
unable or unwilling to show any leadership in brokering a détente between
the two sides.

What, for example, were they thinking, when they ignored the warnings from
Concordia's own head of security, Jean Brisebois, who said allowing
Netanyahu to speak at the downtown campus with a capacity of only 600 was
a bad idea and that Loyola, with its capacity to seat 2,000 would be a far
better venue?

It's important to remember that Concordia has become a microcosm of the
Middle East: the Muslim student population now numbers about 5,000, or
one-fifth of the enrolment. Another 1,500 to 2,000 students are Jewish.
And since the second intifada two years ago, the rift between the two
groups has grown even greater.

Netanyahu is extremely controversial and in the eyes of many, a repugnant
figure responsible for flagrant human-rights abuses. Among other things,
he said in 1989 that Israel should have forced Palestinians out of the
occupied territories while the world's eyes were focused on the massacre
in China's Tiananmen Square.

He's been a staunch opponent of any peace agreement with the Palestinians
and, as prime minister, oversaw an increase in settlements in the occupied
territories.

Of course he has the right to express his opinions, but given the
explosive situation in the Middle East, the rising tensions at Concordia,
and that it was two days short of the Sept. 11 anniversary, one has to
wonder if they weren't just asking for trouble.

In the end, the Concordia administration demonstrated an extreme lack of
preparation for and understanding of the intense emotions that Netanyahu's
visit would produce.

Perhaps yesterday's ban is their attempt to appear to be doing something.
But it is nothing more than damage control. It includes exhibits or
installations dealing with the Middle East conflict, information tables
with pamphlets or other material dealing with these issues, as well as
posters and public meetings or speeches, whether by people from within or
outside the Concordia community.

Anyone wanting to set up information tables dealing with any other topics
will have to go somewhere other than the lobby or the mezzanine, the main
high-traffic areas for students.

Aside from saying it encourages "meetings be organized to bring the
contending sides together," the university is doing little to address the
problem head on. A ban is something you put on lawn pesticides, not
freedom of expression. By trying to put a lid on things, Concordia is,
once again, just asking for trouble.