Were the presidents of Alberta’s two largest universities pushed to use cops dressed up as stormtroopers to violently clear campus encampments used by students for a few hours to peacefully protest the continuing deadly assault on Gaza?
Or did they jump of their own accord when they asked police to clear the campus demonstrations Thursday night in Calgary and early Saturday morning in Edmonton?
If they jumped they should be held responsible, for it was a foolish decision that runs counter to the traditions of the academy and will likely make the protests bigger, more aggressive, and potentially much more dangerous – especially if police continue to overreact and the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians continues into the fall when students return to campus in large numbers.
Most university degrees nowadays don’t require proof of competence in second language, so perhaps modern administrators like University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan and University of Calgary President Edward McCauley don’t understand that the phrase in loco parentis is Latin, not Spanish.
It doesn’t mean university leaders should act like deranged parents who attack their own children, or encourage others to do so.
Yes, most university students are legally adults, but university teachers and administrative leaders nevertheless have a parent-like moral responsibility to defend their young charges, not facilitate assaults upon them, and to promote the tradition of free expression associated with scholarly pursuits, not undermine it.
Certainly many parents of university students who have paid their tuition will be just as unhappy with these administrators as growing numbers of faculty members appear to be.
Some of them will be lawyers or can afford to hire members of that profession. This too is a reason the decision was not a wise one, no matter whose idea it was. After all, if the universities had just left things alone, chances are a good many campers would have dispersed with the end of term, at least for the time being.
President Flanagan’s claim the encampment “put the university community’s safety at risk,” doesn’t wash and doesn’t change a thing.
As for his assertion “the University of Alberta has been clear that violation of the law or policies of the university goes beyond the parameters of freedom of expression,” that is in fact not clear at all. As the Calgary Herald reported yesterday, at least some legal scholars say otherwise.
The Herald quoted Osgoode Hall Law School constitutional law professor Bruce Ryder observing that “it looks to me like they’ve engaged in kind of a mass violation of protesters’ constitutional rights.”
Who knows? Mr. Flanagan and Dr. McCauley may find that the courts agree. Then what?
Naturally, we are going to hear a lot of claims like Mr. Flanagan’s in the next few days that many of the occupants of the tents on the two Alberta campuses were not students. Inevitably, they will be called squatters.
Don’t believe it. The encampment strategy to defend Gaza’s civil population is a student movement in North America, although there are certainly non-students horrified by ethnic cleansing and genocidal behaviour who have joined them.
Indeed, if one were looking for a way to encourage larger crowds to come to campus with more people who are not students, then setting cops with flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets on a few dozen students in tents would certainly be an excellent way to go about it.
If the presidents were pushed, though, we need to know by whom.
While there is no proof, yet, it is natural to assume the United Conservative Government of Premier Danielle Smith had a hand in demanding the foolish hard-line response to the campus protests in Calgary and Edmonton.
After all, there can be no question that contempt for academic inquiry, free speech, and the rule of law are all on brand for the UCP Government and the political staff in the Premier’s Office.
There is no question Premier Smith herself was delighted by the violent police response in Calgary. She said so Friday.
“I’m glad that the University of Calgary made the decision that they did,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference that day. “I think what they found in Calgary is that a large number who were trespassing were not students, and we have to be mindful of that.” (Note the similarity of Ms. Smith’s talking point to Mr. Flanagan’s.)
She added: “I’ll watch and see what the University of Alberta learns from what they observed in Calgary.” One wonders if she already knew something.
It is ironic, of course, that the same UCP government does nothing about squatters building semi-permanent structures from which to obstruct public highways as long as they are flying F-Trudeau flags and waving Axe-the-Tax placards. Apparently, they even get friendly visits from UCP MLAs.
Similarly, there is some irony in the fact the same government bullied Alberta universities into adopting the Chicago Statement on Free Expression, which demands “free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation,” including the right of students to publicly confront people with whom they disagree on campus.
Except, I guess, when the potential for free, robust, and uninhibited confrontations venture into arguments the UCP doesn’t like. Then someone dials 9-1-1.
Edmonton-Strathcona Member of Parliament Heather McPherson, a New Democrat, said on social media she was “appalled by the actions of the University of Alberta and the Edmonton Police Service.”
“Using militarized police to violently attack and break up a peaceful protest goes against everything the University is supposed to stand for,” she tweeted. “The protesters were not a threat to anyone and they were not preventing any university activities. … The U of A betrayed its students, faculty, and its mission.”
This statement is difficult to dispute.
A joint statement yesterday by Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir, and Advanced Education Critic Rhiannon Hoyle called the police response “completely disproportionate” and noted “it would be remiss to not contrast the police response in the last two days to the response to other current protests, on Alberta public property, that have not resulted in evictions, arrests or injuries.”
By noon Saturday, there had been another demonstration on the Quad at the U of A. I doubt it will be the last.
I expect many faculty members at the two universities opposed to the roust and suppression of the protest are mulling their next moves.
In an apparent effort to do some damage control, Mr. Flanagan published another statement this morning, repeating his talking points, adding a new one about “potential weapons,” and claiming a “fundamental commitment to freedom of expression.”
The hypocrisy of the UCP knows no bounds. Goons in riot gear are called in to crack heads at university campuses while the clowns camped on public property for weeks on end beside Hwy 2 put up buildings. Maybe the students should have displayed a few F*** Trudeau flags so they would be left alone.
PS: Given the Canadian government’s response to the horror in Gaza, arguably F-Trudeau flags would have been entirely appropriate. DJC
The most annoying thing about being on the left in alberta is people thinking you like that floppy haired idiot just because you hate the junior fascist that’s never worked a day in his life.
They’re both assholes, I didn’t vote for Trudeau, I’m a friggin communist, he’s a princeling for
God sakes.
What a disgrace, and what an embarassment for U of A alumni!
Of course, on a lighter note, I was reminded of this scene from Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1968)
Berkeley landlord (Norman Fell) to Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman):
“You’re not one of those outside agitators, are you?”
Braddock: “No.”
Berkekey landlord: “‘Cause I won’t stand for that.”
As an alleged journalist, what evidence do you have that the Universities were pushed by the Provincial government other than it being a convenient narrstive?
The U of A and U of C had the luxury of time lag to see what happened at other schools. Student encampments grew as they attracted professional protestors, homeless people, drug addicts and other troublemakers. Better to shut it down early as waiting would only increase risk.
When is a protest no longer a protest? I would argue that blockades of any type and occupations of private property cross the line and should face severe legal consequences. Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act is absolutely appropriate.
Doug—
1. If you did your homework, you would know that DJC is not an alleged journalist, but an actual one.
2. He asked the question, not a statement.
3. If we’re going to talk about professional protesters, all the ‘axe-tax’ people obviously being paid to be there for weeks on end (no regular jobs, unless they’re camping out on their carbon tax rebate cheques)
5. What proof do you have have there were professional protesters, homeless people and drug addicts, were YOU there??
6. Exactly what blockade are you talking about? I haven’t heard of a single instance of anyone being impeded in any way.
And finally, as far as facing severe legal consequences, well excuse me??? The UCP/Conservative party are always screaming about Freedom of Speech, the right to protest and especially Freedom of speech at Universities and you’re calling for police overreaction??
If I may be allowed, that’s beyond hypocrisy, it’s blatant overreach ; something your leader seems to be becoming an expert on.
Randi-lee (and Doug): I think of myself as a retired journalist, by which I mean that while I have not retired, I have mostly retired from journalism. The purpose of this blog is to write commentary about the events of the day, mostly in Alberta. If Doug doesn’t like what I have to say, he is welcome to stop reading the blog. DJC
I like to read alien (from my point of view) perspectives
Suggesting you yourself may well be an alien. Thanks for the clarity Doug.
Doug — call home ….
Randi-lee: Doug appears to be a very angry person. Speaking of therapy, as we were, I hope we are serving a therapeutic purpose by letting Doug let off a little steam most evenings. Be nice, everyone. DJC
…. entirely appropriate, except when it’s the alt-right anti-vaxxers, right?
Categorizing the encampment as outside agitators and drug users proves that you weren’t there, you don’t know anyone that was there, and you haven’t even bothered to read any interviews (conducted by journalists*) of anyone that was there.
That much I know; now I’m going to engage in some projection. You’re not from Edmonton, so you have pretty close to zero say in how folks in this city conduct themselves, but for some reason you think you have a fiat. I’m guessing 30 years at a minimum since you were the age to be at any of these institutions.
As for the speculative question of the article, pondering the evidence at hand and asking questions about the evidence we are lacking is literally what a journalists job is.
You don’t know that though, because (again I’m projecting) higher learning was never your thing. It would appear that basic literacy isn’t your thing either, nor is respectful decorum: probably why you don’t have very many friends.
I’m not even going to bring up the convoy people because literally everyone else has, but I know people who were at that encampment, and you’re lying, and that’s what a coward does when they disagree with someone.
One more thing, all these rule of law people don’t seem to be all that concerned about applying the rule of law to the genocidal state of Israel. You want law and order for students in the university they pay thousands of dollars to attend, but not a peep about the 40,000+ dead CIVILIANS IN GAZA. MORE THAN 50% OF WHICH ARE CHILDREN.
Oh but the students are trampling the grass. Shut up.
Excellent post, David. Those presidents should have read historian Kevin Kruse’s article a few weeks ago about how the killings at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970 inflamed the situation and grew the antiwar movement in the US.
https://kevinmkruse.substack.com/p/bloodlust
“Student strikes that May affected some 350 colleges, and estimates put the number of students involved in the demonstrations at around 2 million, which was 25% of the university students in America, by far a record high. Thirty ROTC buildings were burned or bombed.”
President Flanagan was on the job. “…we found potential weapons, including hammers, axes and screwdrivers, along with a box of needles.” Luckily Edmonton’s finest showed up in full riot gear. Those “potential weapons” could have sparked outbreaks of violence like roof shingling, wood splitting, window installation and most dangerous of all, a quilting bee.
Flannagan and the UCP and the EPD are all using the safety cotton mouthed crap that justifies a “measured response” and a “right to defend themselves” that are the crux of what is being protested.
Slimmy abusers working their way up to justifiable accidental deaths .
The smirk beneath the helmet pic kinda says it all .
Dannie the mindless reminding us to be mindful is rather telling also.
60 plus rogue terror organizations in the convoy and that was all good.
How anyone can defend any nation or people or faith that answers 38 criminal child deaths with 14,000 child deaths and blanket withdrawal of ALL means of survival and no escape for anyone inside the prison is beyond me.
Call me what you have to as I watch 1/2 hide under nation and 1/2 hide under religion but none rise to the basic humanity / empathy / compassion required to join the human race and all claim they are Gods chosen.
Every Israeli should be required to adopt a gazan young or old and provide them with every comfort and opportunity and as a moslem for the rest of their lives.
There is no justification for the 80 year crime spree of murder , torture, deprivation and death that the chosen have visited on the innocent.
https://www.capecentralhigh.com/ohio/kent-state-never-forget/
Things have changed since those days. In 2024, police wear black gloves. Sap gloves, made with steel knuckles and disguised to look like ordinary leather gloves, deliver similar results to brass knuckles, but hidden. They’re for hand-to-hand combat, to deliver concussive force. No one wears them to diffuse a situation peacefully. Are those sap gloves in the photo?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighted-knuckle_glove
Quite a different reaction when the protesters were against Trudeau. The famous freedom convoy that was not just way more disruptive but even included weapons and attacks on the prime minister was ok to stay and even had visitors from our legislature. This UCP is a disgusting mafia.
Carlos: I think Take Back Alberta is behind this. There seems to be double standards here, and the author of the blog covered that. I have other comments, and I’ll post them down on this blog.
Remember when the anti-vaxxers were walking into stores and harassing store employees in Calgary? Remember when the convoy idiots drove into and around the Beltline every weekend for months, making life miserable for the people who lived there? And the police were useless, just as they are against the recent homophobic protesters.
Valerie, yes I remember all of that and more. They found weapons.
The difference is that they were right wing and against Trudeau so that is fine by Danielle and her gang. The problem of course, are those communists in the Universities. These double standards are as old as the Conservatives have existed in Alberta. As far as I remember it has not changed. It is dogma.
That the right-wing snowflakes don’t understand how the protests force them to see “ideas and perspectives at odds with their own” – the very embodiment of their dear Chicago Principles’ opposition to intellectual safe spaces – tells you a great deal about UCP’s sincerity and the integrity of their principles.
Personally, I think that Take Back Alberta is behind this. I sense that they are. Under the UCP, there seems to two sets of standards. The UCP had MLAs who were supporting the Freedom Convoy, and the border blockades. Weapons were found there by the police. Danielle Smith in her less than infinite wisdom thought she could pardon Artur Pawlowski, who supported this border blockade, and had some type of speech, which mentioned the Alamo. Those border blockades and Freedom Convoy protests were very costly, and very disruptive with the prolonged honking of the horns. What’s going on at these university campuses in Alberta reminds me of Kent State in America, in 1970. I fear that this will get worse, because one side, or the other, will feel that their concerns aren’t being heard, and someone will do something worse to get the attention of people. There are one too many wars going on in the world right now, and what good is it to see all the senseless death, suffering and destruction?
This most recent hypocrisy from the TBA cult government proves every criticism against them but their loyal cult members will refuse to open their eyes as long as their “enemies” get punished for something.
I can’t say the University Presidents were pushed, but they were strongly encouraged by someone who has power over them. Maybe its just semantics, but it seems to be essentially the same thing to me.
A lot of provinces are testing the limits of their constitutional powers these days. Some like Ontario have failed spectacularly in the recent past and are a bit more careful now. But Alberta’s conservatives are used to this province being a compliant one party state, so over reach seems to be their current approach.
However, I’m not sure the current version of Social Credit has learned anything since their past unfortunate experience with eugenics. No doubt they will be dragged into court soon and reminded of what they should have already learned.
Dave: I don’t think Social Credit can be solely blamed for the Eugenics Board. I am certain it was founded by the United Farmers Government and it continued for a short time under the Progressive Conservatives, although the Lougheed Government shut it down quickly. It is true, though, most of its worst activities took place under Social Credit. DJC
One member of the eugenics committee that rubber-stamped sterilization approvals was a woman who belonged to the UFA. It’s hard to find any information about her, other than that. Should we be concerned about panels set up in present times to decide health policy, when they’re made up of disqualified doctors and community members with no qualifications other than allegiance to a cause in favor with the government of the day?
History repeats itself.
While the Convoy yahoos are allowed to have their protest encampments, while causing all sorts of mayhem, a rather benign protest encampments concerning the events in Gaza were ruthlessly crushed. It’s rather troubling, the whole timeline of events that have unfolded from the Oct 6th attack to the present. One would think that a modern military, using a wide variety of the most destructive conventional weapons available, the general population would be up in arms over the prospect of populations being assaulted daily by F16 fighters jets and attack drones, not to mention endless bombardment by missile artillery. Of course, the usual defence for such actions is that Hamas is using the civilian population as human shields, as though the civilians had the option to not be human shields. I’m waiting for some bright light to just say, “Well, Gazans should just get out of the way.” Many have, leaving behind their only homes to be levelled and bulldozed by the IDF.
Now displaced, Gazan Palestinians have been pushed into an even smaller refugee camp, while the IDF threatens to attack even that camp. When will all this end? In the minds of certain members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, it will end when there are no Palestinians left alive. In the midst of all this chaos, the US has been the most ardent cheerleader for the Israelis, gladly supplying them with intelligence and weapons. The result is complicity in genocide.
And on the matter of genocide, Bill Maher made a remark that this must be the slowest genocide ever. (Considering that Netanyahu has been a guest on his show over a dozen times over the years, one does get the sense that he really has a hate-on for anyone against whatever the State of Israel does.) Actually, only the Holocaust could be called an organized and industrialized genocide, that even had a completion date. Historically, most genocides take decades, if not centuries, to accomplish. The nitpicking over whether something is a genocide or not is about a shallow as Netanyahu’s own claims about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” It’s a simple analogy and everyone ate it up.
The Nazis set the barre for what genocide is supposed to be, and the result is a high barre to meet. This would also explain the strange and ongoing debate over whether the Rwandan genocide is really a genocide. The UN didn’t think so, until it was too late, of course.
And here we are … one side cheerleading the IDF as it destroys the lives of thousands of civilians, aid workers, journalists, etc; while the other side calls for rationality in the face of the completely unhinged behaviour of those cheering for more war.
The two Alberta universities at the centre of crackdowns on protestors last week each have billions of dollars in endowment donations invested in general categories like global equity and private equity. Protestors on campus have been calling for disclosure and divestment from funds used against Gazans. Do these two universities fund arms manufacturers and technology firms making weapons and surveillance technology used against Gazans?
Does it matter who donates money to our public universities and who these public universities fund with that money? It mattered in 2023 when the University of Alberta disclosed that it had returned a $30,000 endowment from Yaroslav Hunka’s family.
“The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused,” Verna Yiu, interim provost and vice-president of the university, said in a statement.
“On behalf of the university, I want to express our commitment to address anti-Semitism in any of its manifestations, including the ways in which the Holocaust continues to resonate in the present.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/yaroslav-hunka-endowment-closed-1.6980882
Has the U. of A. made any changes since then, like they promised? Taking money from a member of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division (SS 14th Waffen Division) who was on Hitler’s side in WWII was bad press. But who else has donated and what have they done? Do public universities aid in whitewashing the reputations of the unscrupulous? If money associated with past genocide is rejected after public disclosure, is it okay to turn around and fund genocide against other peoples in the present?
Why did these two public universities react in the way they did? Do they have some very big donations and investments that they want to hide? Something bigger than $30,000 from Yaroslav Hunka?
Public universities should be transparent about their donations and investments. They receive public funds and should be answerable to the public. How can we believe that they’re not funding wars if they won’t answer questions about their donors and investments? We learned last week that they’d rather use militarized police to attack members of the public than answer those questions. This is what Alberta has become.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the ranch being the court of US prime time television, Senator Lindsay Graham was screeching Israel should be allowed to nuke Gaza. Because the U.S. used nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WW2. So why shouldn’t Israel be granted the same courtesy and put an end to its Palestinian problem.
These campus protests and the backlash against seem to be a battle over the soul of civilization.
I think what they found in Calgary is that a large number who were trespassing were not students
This could be true. Jill Stein, the 73 year old. perennial Green Party candidate for the US Presidency, who is of Jewish descent, was handcuffed, (and arrested?) on one of the US campuses. Clearly she is a dangerous undesirable.
“Integrity, courage, community” from wiki. EPS “Motto” I don’t see much of that in brutalizing young university students.
It looks like the police wanted to try out their latest crowd moving techniques and weapons and send a message to the rest of us. Paramilitary cops beating up teenage school girls is nothing short of disgusting and cowardly. If this was a Teamsters protest the police would still be standing around observing and reporting as Teamsters punch back hard.
The mistake the students made is they should have brought trucks, and lots of them. Plus bouncy castles, an “F” Trudeau flag and a cold plunge pool. Had they done that, Pierre Poilievre would have been there handing out coffee and donuts and the UCP caucus would be prostrating themselves before the protest leaders.
It’s ironic that in Alberta you can block an international border with impunity but a handful of students sitting on a patch of grass at a university will not be tolerated.
I know two people who were at the UofC protest. Both are students, although one is from MRU.
Edmonton Police Service, and the public safety unit in particular (who carried out this assault, with truncheons, pepper bullets and tear gas) are cowards to a person, and a gang within a gang, the cities largest : the EPS.
I did not have time to visit the encampment, but I’ve spoken to many people who did, including some that were there for the sweep, (at 5 am, as students were SLEEPING). Oh and by the way, after they flattened all their tents, they reportedly stole the food from the communal canteen and ate it in front of the students, that’s gotta be a play out of the IDF playbook if I’ve ever seen one.
I was however, present for the March of return the next morning and it’s one of the largest and angriest demonstrations I’ve ever seen in Edmonton, it would have been easy to seize the high level bridge. and although they sent the exact same cops that beat the hell out of those kids, they struck a much more conciliatory tone when confronted by the entire community. However, the naked and pathetic attempt at intimidation was quite obvious.
It would appear when confronted by angry, voting adults in overwhelming numbers they’re not as John Wayne as they were bashing a bunch of twenty somethings and adolescents.
Hope y’all are reading this PSU, your cowardice and thuggery are unmatched.
I glanced through Flanagan’s statement. It sounds really good, hitting all the right notes of restraint, respect for law, concern for public safety, et cetera. He pulls every string, pushes every button, to justify the police action. Somebody had a box of syringes. Did anyone think to ask if one of the protestors is diabetic? Or did they find the syringes at a first-aid station? The “potential weapons” were primarily construction tools; I assume the “axes” were being used to chop something (presumably the “fire hazard” wooden pallets that were “potential barricades”) for cooking fires.
Flanagan’s statement also sounds like a huge pile of legal boilerplate.
As for “outside agitators,” or whatever the Republican-adjacent are calling them this morning—yeah, there are always some noisy, stupid yahoos who want to kick sh_t in The Man’s face. The radical left has their share of boneheads. But it’s funny how many more boneheads showed up for the Freedumb Convoy, the Freedumb blockade at Ambassador Bridge, and the Freedumb blockade at the Coutts crossing. That’s not even counting the Freedumb mini-convoys that went blaring around Edmonton, Calgary—and how many smaller cities and towns?—early in the Glory Days of Stupid.
Flanagan claims he, or the UofA, is has a “fundamental commitment to freedom of expression.” I believe him—as long as he means expressions of support for right-wing talking points.
I saw a suggestion somewhere that the syringes were for Naloxone. If so, that would make them a safety precaution, not weapons.
That wouldn’t matter to the UCP. “Needles” are for “drugs,” and “drugs” are “evil.” It says so in the Bible, or somewhere.
Mike: Irony notwithstanding, almost all of the references to needles in the Bible are about how to sew priestly garments and the like. There is one famous exception: “… when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:23-25, also somewhere in Mark.) This is a lesson directly from the mouth of the founder of their religion that the so-called Christians of the United Conservative Party and Take Back Alberta appear to have forgotten. DJC
Let’s do a quick review:
Homeless camps in Edmonton cleared by force.
AHS staff ordered to change employers (hello new addiction-treatment centre!), no choice, old contracts ignored or arbitrarily cancelled.
AHS board fired because AHS wouldn’t say Covid vaccines are not necessary (and Danielle Smith is rumored to be scared of needles).
Danielle Smith claimed the renewables ban was requested by AER, AESO and rural municipalities—then we learned the municipalities did NOT ask for a ban; and that AER and AESO advised AGAINST a ban. (So who DID want it? My money’s on Rob Anderson, the guy who’s apparently scared of windmills.)
Now this. I see a pattern here. Somebody doesn’t like when people start thinking for themselves. Maybe it’s Danielle Smith. I suspect it’s somebody behind, or above, her.
We need public enquiries, conducted by judges who are NOT from Alberta, on every one of these actions by Smith and the universities. Any bets on whether we’ll get any? No? I don’t think it’ll happen, either.
If this is the kind of politicized crackdown we see from Edmonton’s jackbooted thugs in black then just imagine the damage that Fraulein Schmidt’s private army will do, if/when she gets it off the ground. Alberta, beware. And aware.