Toronto uni faculty: 'We will protect pro-Palestine protesters'

Toronto uni faculty: 'We will protect pro-Palestine protesters'

Faculty at the University of Toronto told the administration that if it seeks to disperse student protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, who are on 'the right side of history', it would have to go through staff… pic.twitter.com/3vR4RmmcGO

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) May 30, 2024

Faculty members at the University of Toronto have warned that they will stand in the way of any action against pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus, after the institution’s administration threatened to forcibly clear and discipline them.

Following the continued encampment by pro-Palestinian protestors and students on the University of Toronto’s campus, which has been in place since 2 May, the University’s administration, this month, filed a notice of motion in Ontario Superior Court seeking to clear the encampment and authorise police to carry that out.

A trespass notice also stated that students present at the King’s College Circle site could be subject to discipline – including suspension or a recommendation of expulsion – with faculty members, librarians and other staff also potentially subject to such measures, including possible termination.

In response to those threats, however, some faculty members have said that even more professors have now been inspired to join in condemnation of the University. On Tuesday, over 60 faculty members stood together on campus and denounced the University’s attempts to force an end to the demonstrations. If the administration asked police to clear the encampment, then they would stand in the way, the faculty members insisted.

Those members include Deb Cowen, a professor of geography and member of the Jewish Faculty Network, who revealed that almost 200 faculty members have attended the encampment in a sharp increase of solidarity with the students. “We are here because we care deeply about our students and because we care deeply about what we are meant to do here in this institution of higher learning,” Cowen stated to the press.

Reiterating a call from the Ontario Federation of Labour which urged the administration not to force a confrontation, she warned that “If you decide to move against the students, you’ll have to go through us first.”

Another faculty member is Steve Easterbrook, director of the school of the environment, who expressed his shock at the administration’s “egregious” threat to faculty. “The idea that a University would call the police on its own students, staff and faculty to remove them from campus is unthinkable. And to threaten staff and faculty with termination is unthinkable. So I and many other chairs and directors have written to the president expressing our outrage at these extreme measures and over the lack of consultation that led up to them.”

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