The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario strongly condemns McGill University’s decision to cut ties with the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU). This decision poses a dangerous threat to students’ rights to organize and autonomy of students’ unions.
On April 7, McGill University announced cutting ties and severing its relationship with SSMU as the campus’ undergraduate students’ union. This is a direct response to the consistent pro-Palestinian actions and advocacy bravely led by students on campus. Throughout the past year, various students and student groups have called on McGill University to divest from weapons and arms manufacturers complicit in war and to denounce Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people. McGill choosing to terminate its relationship with SSMU following a student action voted on by the SSMU membership is both unethical and unjust.
Attacks on students’ right to organize and the autonomy of students’ unions are not new. Still, they are a tactic and threat used by administrations and governments to intimidate students into backing down on their demands and organizing efforts. In the case of Québec, long-standing legislation—the Act respecting the accreditation and financing of students’ associations—protects students’ right to associate and accredit themselves into a union for proper representation. This type of legislation is critical to students and their organizing efforts. No student should fear retribution or penalization for organizing on campus.
This threat to student organizing is not exclusive to Québec. Similar threats, such as the Student Choice Initiative in Ontario, was also an attempt by the government to intimidate students from taking political stances and fighting for their rights by defunding their students’ union. Although the Student Choice Initiative was an Ontario government policy defeated in court, its impacts continue, and the threat to students’ union autonomy continues. At other institutions, administrations have also threatened to terminate agreements with the students’ union or use space policies to deter student organizing altogether.
In the so-called United States, students have witnessed student organizers being arrested on the street and sent to secret detention sites while being threatened with deportation simply for being leaders in the student movement and directly disrupting the Western imperialism. We continue to see an increase in fascist crackdowns on student organizing, autonomy and an attack on academic freedom.
The student movement is at a critical point. This past year, students have been actively organizing on their campuses, calling for disclosure of investments and a call for institutions to divest from companies and industries that perpetuate genocide through weapons and fossil fuel companies’ investments. The purpose of post-secondary education is not only to gain an education but to also have a lasting impact on present material conditions; as well, student organizing is often an extension of education. The McGill administration’s move to end the long held agreement with the students’ union further infringes on students’ right to organize and challenges the academic integrity of institutions and the right to academic freedom.
The actions taken by institutions across so-called North America are a threat to the integrity of postsecondary education. Although education is a fundamental right, students continue to be charged exponentially high tuition fees and are burdened with student debt, all while they experience heavy police presence on their campuses. The deterioration of public education into publicly assisted education further erodes the rights of students, faculty and workers to express their politics openly and freely. It will only be through a fully public education system and with legislation to protect students’ right to organize, that academic and organizing rights will be upheld and respected. The time to act is now – it is up to us, as students, to get organized and fight these attacks on our autonomy and organizing. Students have always been at the forefront of history, now is no different – join your student movement, get organized, and let us resist, together.