Debates on campus safety in response to Palestine solidarity activism show we need strategies to navigate discomfort

By Natalie Kouri-Towe, Concordia University, Sara Matthews, Wilfrid Laurier University

Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights will soon begin hearings on antisemitism and Islamophobia. The process comes partly in response to claims that university and college campuses are unsafe spaces.

With student protests — including at the University of Toronto and University of British Columbia — pressuring institutions to divest from Israeli militarization, the question of safety has come under scrutiny.

In Québec, a recent injunction request to clear a student encampment at McGill University was rejected by a Superior Court judge who ruled that “the plaintiffs have not personally been subjected to harassment … and their fears are for the most part subjective and based on isolated events.”

How we respond to concerns about student safety can set the stage for learning or encourage its opposite: divisiveness and censorship.

Political expression on campuses

Across North America, there has been a chilling effect on political expression related to the war in Gaza and Palestine solidarity activism.

In the United States, campus events have been cancelled, students have been suspended and faculty have faced censure.

Educational institutions seem to be in crisis. Police response to campus protests, including the arrests of students and faculty, has left many questioning their right to free expression.

We are wary, however, of how the language of “safety” is being used in the Canadian context to justify government interventions into campus affairs. In Ontario, this is evident with the proposed Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, which aims to support student safety. The bill would empower the minister to influence the content of anti-racism and mental health policies, a move that faculty unions say could threaten academic freedom.

Governing safety in Canada

The modern concept of public safety has its roots in national security legislation crafted during the First World War.

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