Politics is now discrimination

Letters

This letter was originally sent to Fred Lowy, rector and vice-chancellor of Concordia University, and is reprinted with permission.

Dear sir:

Though I am sure you have already been inundated with letters, I beg you to read but one more on the shocking decision of the Concordia Students Union to ban the Jewish students group Hillel.

I understand the university's hesitation to get involved both in a supposedly internal students' matter, as well as an issue deemed "political" by many observers. However, it is time to recognize that the border between "politics" and "discrimination" has been crossed.

I have noticed Concordia has tended to distance itself from the activities of its students union, alleging no control over what the CSU does. I hope you can recognize that that is simply untrue. All CSU members, by definition, are Concordia students and open to discipline. I do not doubt for a moment that the university would intervene if the CSU involved itself in fewer "political" activities and more open expressions of hatred, such as a lynch mob or a Ku Klux Klan rally. Surely the university would not appear so "helpless" in the face of such conduct.

I understand the university's hesitation to get involved in what it deems a "political" issue, but to label it as such overlooks some crucial realities. The students affected by CSU activity did not ask to participate in politics. They are regular Concordia students who have a right to feel safe and secure at the institution as much as anyone. To suggest that Jewish students at Concordia currently feel secure on campus, or that they do not feel a curbing of their rights is, simply, laughable. It is not only a hostile environment to Jewish students, but very openly so. This is not politics, it is your students' lives.

Furthermore, you must surely recognize that violence on campus is not politics. Think about what a slippery slope that is: Could an East Timorese student kick and spit at elderly Indonesians in the name of events happening thousands of miles away? What about historical ills? If a group of Latvian students attacked Russian students for past grievances, is this merely politics? We all saw what happened on Sept. 9 [when rioters kept Binyamin Netanyahu from speaking], and that was neither an exercise of free expression (quite to the contrary!) nor an acceptable form of political protest in a democratic country. That was criminally recognized assault, plain and simple, and I cannot imagine that the CSU or university's reaction if the roles were reversed (if Jewish students kicked and spat at elderly Muslim Montrealers) would be quite so lax.

Finally, I beg you to consider the fact that Concordia is a public institution and is bound at least in some form to respect the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 15 of that document states that every individual has the "right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion...."

Few doubt that there was a very strong vein of anti-Semitism in CSU activities in the past, but the banning of Hillel is simply too transparent to be anything but blatant discrimination on ethnic grounds, and an infringement of Section 15. Hillel is an entirely benign organization. They have done nothing – far less than the CSU itself, certainly – to promote violence, intolerance or a culture of fear on campus. They are being banned because they are a Jewish organization. If they deserve banishment, then certainly every student group with ties to the violence of Sept. 9 deserves it many times over. The same could be true for any student group that has hinted at approval of, or uttered the slightest praise for, any violent activity committed against Jews or Israel. Unless the CSU itself and several other students groups are set to pull the shutters down, there is absolutely no justification for the expulsion of Hillel from campus activity.

The university does have the power to prevent the infringement of Section 15 and the insult to democracy happening on its campus. One does not have to be "pro-Israel" in the current Mideast conflict to voice disapproval for violence and implicate its perpetrators when it happens. The university has a responsibility to prevent the exploitation of one group of students by another, entirely on discriminatory grounds. Please do something about it.

Ian Disend
Toronto

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