On Feb 1, a group of students, community members and faculty stood in silence in the University Community Centre, standing for the voices of the silenced in Palestine. This was an act of honour and dignity, in the tradition of testimony and public witness in defiance of banal evil. Standing in silent observance of justice and peace in a place which describes itself as a place of freedom and diversity, as “celebrating our campus as a setting for learning in its broadest sense” should be cause for celebration and reflection.
Sadly, it was not.
The repercussions arising from this brief act of dignified presence are ominous. Two student groups, long the targets of intolerance, abuse and interference, were targeted yet again. Insults to the integrity of these students are still being worked out.
Even more troubling, the campus police issued a unilateral and unrebuttable trespass order against a member of the London community because he took part in what the order described as an “unauthorized protest.” We won’t belabour how dangerous the word “unauthorized” is, save to remind everyone that oxymorons deployed as weapons by the powerful are a peculiar form of violence. More important, Mike Roy is not only a member of the London community that Western claims to serve, he is also an invaluable voice on the campus-based community radio station.
Banning him from campus, and the threatening interference targeting students, is clearly an attempt by the administration, through the campus police, to silence their voices and, through them, the communities in London the administration does not like. The administration may see Western as a zone of exclusion and violence. We don’t. None of us should.
We urge all of our colleagues and friends to express their outrage to the administration over this ugly violation of the principles of inquiry and speech, even the eloquent speech of silent testimony. If we do not, then sadly, we have nothing to celebrate, only the cringing of shame.
Douglass St.Christian, Anthropology
David Heap, French Studies