Courting potential violence against protesters, UWaterloo seeks injunction to remove encampment
The University of Waterloo has announced it is formally seeking an injunction to remove the encampment.
In its announcement, the University makes only vague, unspecified reference to “intimidation and harassment” by encampment protesters to justify its actions.
In an appalling and shameless manner, the University attempts to leverage the recent report of the Task Force on Free Expression (on which I served) to further justify the injunction request, stating that the Task Force report expressed the view that “the right to protest does not mean people have the right to endlessly occupy a shared university space.” While this is true, the Task Force report also insisted that calling on the police or seeking an injunction to remove a protest should be done only as a last resort, and only in a context where there has been undue disruption to campus activities or where there are specific concerns about campus safety.
The University failed to be sufficiently forthcoming or transparent about what activity justifies this threat of violence against the protesters. Nothing in the Task Force report justifies this decision. If the University has evidence that protesters have engaged in unlawful harassment or intimidation, it should provide specific examples. Otherwise, it is violating the principle of restraint it owes to peaceful assembly and free expression, and is actively risking violence against members of its own community.
Unbelievable! How ironic that this is the same university that is about to host a conference titled “From Targeting in Academia to Promoting Trust and Understanding”.
Well said, as always. Violence is, of course, the point. You never hear the sentence 'The riot squad was called and nothing happened'; the university leadership know, and expect, this. Authority does not like to have its' legitimacy questioned, let alone by those it views as lesser minds. Shutting down the 'rabble' with force is how it was always going to end, and being academic authority the sophistry and convoluted justifications for the violence will flow.