We, professors and teaching staff of Laval University, denounce the measures deployed by our establishment in response to the demands of students in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Saturday 1er June 2024, the Laval University campus was the scene of an intervention by the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) against members of the student community. A peaceful encampment had just been set up by students from Laval University to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and to protest against the complicity of the academic and political circles with regard to the probable genocide in progress.
Barely two hours after setting up their camp, our students were visited by an imposing police contingent who forced them to dismantle their camp, issued them with three offense notices and made at least one arrest, including that of a student who allegedly spent the night at the police station.
What this serious incident brings to light is that Laval University has become a space for the muzzling and judicialization of democratic student life, a trend that the entire Quebec university community should be concerned about.
Beyond the fact that a request for police intervention against a peaceful movement is incompatible with the mission of our university, the choice of our senior administration to allow and support the intervention of the SPVQ has not left no room for dialogue and is part of a broader context which, in light of the disturbing facts reported by our students, seems to amount to surveillance, control and censorship. So what does the senior administration at Laval University fear in deploying such exceptional resources?
It should be remembered that the student mobilization in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as it is expressed internationally, is motivated by at least two characteristics of the possible genocide which directly concern the academic environment. The first characteristic refers to what international experts from the United Nations now describe as “scholasticide”, the intentional destruction of the Palestinian education system through the systematic bombing of universities and educational establishments by the Israeli army. The second characteristic relates to the financial links of foreign universities with the arms industry and their research links with Israeli universities which, as documented in the work of Israeli researcher Maya Wind, are put at the service of the occupation and the army.
This is what the students in solidarity with Palestine are mobilizing against, and the response that the senior administration of Laval University has in store for them does not live up to what we have the right to expect from them. a higher education establishment.
The defense of the senior administration of Laval University, which indicates that it allowed the SPVQ to intervene because it did not receive an official request to set up a student camp, seems untenable to us. Throughout Quebec, Canada and the world, student camps have been set up without requesting authorization, precisely because they aim to protest against university establishments due to their close ties with the Israeli state and army. .
Everywhere, student camps are demanding the disclosure of transparent information on these links, particularly financial ones, and the commitment of universities to break them to put an end to any risk of complicity. Everywhere, student camps constitute demonstrations which, by definition, cannot be treated as ordinary activities requiring the usual approval processes by university authorities.
Here in Quebec, it is the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms that governs the demonstrations, and not the internal processes of universities. Elsewhere in Quebec, university administrations allowed student camps to set up before turning to the courts to request their dismantling, essentially citing security reasons, which were for the most part rejected. No other Quebec university has cited the absence of a prior authorization request to justify the intervention of the police forces.
Laval University is thus distinguished by a particularly uncompromising and authoritarian approach towards its students’ freedom to demonstrate.
We are taking the floor today to ask the senior administration of Laval University to respect and protect the right of democratic expression of our students and, therefore, to respect the prevalence of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the person on their rules of internal management.
*Also co-signed this letter: Sophie Toupin, assistant professor, Department of Information and Communication, Laval University; Nat Nesvaderani, assistant professor, Department of Anthropology, Université Laval; Madeleine Pastinelli, full professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Simon Viviers, full professor, School of Counseling and Orientation, Université Laval; Laura Silva, assistant professor, Department of Political Science, Université Laval; Sule Tomkinson, associate professor, Department of Political Science, Université Laval; Francisco Pereira de Lima, lecturer and sector manager, School of Languages, Laval University; Colette Brin, full professor, Department of Information and Communication, Université Laval; Isabelle Auclair, associate professor, Department of Management, Laval University; Julien Larregue, assistant professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Chantal Pouliot, full professor, Department of Studies on Teaching and Learning, Université Laval; Catherine Larouche, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, Université Laval; Bénédicte Taillefait, doctoral student and research assistant, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Rose Moisan-Paquet, doctoral student and teaching assistant, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Caecilia Alexandre, lecturer, Faculty of Law, Université Laval; Elisabeth Mercier, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Laval University; Sylvie Loriaux, associate professor, Department of Political Science, Université Laval; Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, full professor, Department of Anthropology, Université Laval; Katherine Robitaille, doctoral student and lecturer, Department of Management, Université Laval; Lorena Suelves Ezquerro, lecturer and research professional, Department of Management, Université Laval; Julie Faubert, associate professor, School of Art, Université Laval; Marie-Hélène Deshaies, assistant professor, School of social work and criminology, Laval University; Christine Vézina, full professor, Faculty of Law, Université Laval; Richard Marcoux, full professor, Department of Sociology, Laval University; Alexandre Sayegh, associate professor, Department of Political Science, Université Laval; Luc Audebrand, full professor, Department of Management, Laval University; Maya Yampolsky, associate professor, School of Psychology, Université Laval; Laurence Godin, assistant professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Bruno Courbon, full professor, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Translation, Laval University; Josette Brun, full professor, Department of Information and Communication, Université Laval; Mylène Bédard, associate professor, Department of Literature, Theater and Cinema, Université Laval; Marie-Ève Bradette, assistant professor, Department of Literature, Theater and Cinema, Université Laval; Louis Émond, lecturer, Department of Studies on Teaching and Learning, president of the Union of Lecturers at Laval University; Nicolas Saucier, lecturer, Department of Information and Communication, secretary general of the Union of Lecturers at Laval University; Rachid Kandri-Rody, lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, treasurer of the Union of Lecturers at Laval University; Vincent Mauger, lecturer, School of Design, vice-president of communications of the Union of Lecturers at Laval University; Sylvain Marois, lecturer, Department of Industrial Relations, vice-president of inter-union relations of the Union of Lecturers at Laval University; Louis Lefrançois, lecturer, Department of Historical Sciences, vice-president of labor relations of the Union of Lecturers of Laval University; Élisabeth Cyr, lecturer, Language School, vice-president for union life and mobilization of the Union of lecturers at Laval University; Araz (Mohammad) Jabbari, assistant professor, Department of Organizational Information Systems, Université Laval; Thierry Rodon, full professor, Department of Political Science, Laval University; Pascale Bédard, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Simon Rainville, full professor, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics, Université Laval; Laura Monetta, full professor, Department of Rehabilitation, Université Laval; Denis Boudreau, full professor, Department of Chemistry, Université Laval; Pierre-André Hudon, associate professor, Department of Management, Laval University; Martine D’Amours, associate professor, Department of Industrial Relations, Université Laval; Fabrice Hernandez, full professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Fannie Lafontaine, full professor, Faculty of Law, Université Laval; Julie Desrosiers, full professor, Faculty of Law, Université Laval; Dan Furukawa Marques, associate professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Christine Gilbert, associate professor, School of Accounting, Université Laval; Kirsten Hummel, full professor, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Translation, Université Laval; Marc-André Fortin, full professor, Department of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Université Laval; Muriel Gomez-Perez, full professor, Department of Historical Sciences, Université Laval; Younès Messaddeq, full professor, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics, Université Laval; Antoine Pellerin, associate professor, Faculty of Law, Laval University; Tigran Galstian, full professor, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics, Université Laval; Henri Assogba, full professor, Department of Information and Communication, Laval University; Seima Souissi, lecturer, Department of Information and Communication, Laval University; Abdoulaye Anne, full professor, Department of Foundations and Practices in Education, Laval University; André C. Drainville, full professor, Department of Sociology, Université Laval; Faiçal Larachi, full professor, Department of Chemistry, Université Laval.