Facing Global Conflict
Speaking notes UBC-V special meeting of Senate, June 3, 2024
These are my speaking notes for my comments at the June 3, 2024 UBC-V Senate meeting. This may vary from what I actually say. Each speaker is to be limited to three minutes. This text is about that length.
I am publishing this in advance of the start of the meeting as there may be some desire to hold the deliberations in camera. Thus I would not be able to publish this after the fact and say it was my comment (or not) - to do so would be in violation of meeting rules.
Personally I think people should have the ability to speak publicly without fear of reprisals. However there have been threats and harassment from activists against those who don’t fall into line and refuse to capitulate to demands. In such an environment I can appreciate why others may wish to speak in camera.
Update, 3:30pm, June 3, 2004: The final vote total with both online and in person votes was 16 in favour, and 49 opposed. The meeting was – although the notional public gallery was cleared – still in open session. This means Senators can recount and discuss what went on and what was said outside of the Senate.
Our world is beset by regional conflicts inflicting harm and disruption on the lives of millions. Ungovernability and rampant internal violence in Haiti. An escalating civil war in Sudan. An ongoing war in Yemen. Russian aggression in Ukraine. Then there is the ongoing attacks against LGBT communities in the USA, much of Africa, and in the Islamic nations. The liberal democratic values of peace and tolerance we subscribe to in Canada represents a minority view in the world.
No feeling person can find any redeeming value in the brutality of the October 7th attacks. This wasn’t resistance. It was pure brutality. Yet I have heard academics and activists speak of this moment as resistance, as something to celebrate. Such sentiments may be protected by academic freedom but they do nothing to end the conflict in the middle east, if anything they inflame the situation and encourage similar actions around the world.
It is important to support the freedom of academics to pursue ideas and research irrespective of one’s personal feelings about such work. To that end I initiated a statement in my department that spoke in support of pro-Palestinian academics being able to exercise that freedom without fear of reprisals. When campers set up their tents on MacInnis Field I urged UBC’s Administration to resist demands to evict them immediately, to avoid using laws of property to remove the protest, to allow them the space to express their views.
We should all expect the opportunity to hold views and perspectives and be able to express them - this kind of tolerance is what defines a liberal democratic society. It is what distinguishes us from less tolerant and oppressive societies.
Today we are asked to break a relationship agreement (and some also want us to cancel a class), all to make a point in a longstanding internecine struggle. We are asked to do so in a way that masks brutality as resistance while calling self defence aggression. Will this motion end the violence in Israel? I very much doubt it.
Our sociology colleague and former head of department, Guy Stecklov, shares a detailed submission in which he calls into question the effectiveness of this motion in ending the violence in the middle east. Professor Stecklov also highlights the role Israel’s universities play in creating a space for liberal and progressive thought and action. He makes the case breaking agreements would further alienate progressive voices in Israel.
War is terrible. What is happening in Gaza is terrible. The deliberate targeting of Israeli citizens, broadcasting the atrocities committed against them, and calling it resistance is horrific.
The people of Israel and the people of Palestine have to throw off their respective leaderships and find a way to live together on land they share. Our intervention in favour of one party over another will have no beneficial effect.
I will vote against this motion.
Thanks of this. I appreciate your support of the idea of protest. One of the people I work with reported on the actions of the police on the weekend. Have you been to the occupation and watched what the police and various other forces have been doing? It is clear by your thoughts that you know what is right and wrong.