School withdraws protest protocol
Mcgill plans more campus consultation
In the matter of its controversial protest protocol, McGill University seems to have blinked first.
Campus union leaders were declaring victory after the university abruptly announced late Wednesday that it was removing its contentious Protocol Regarding Demonstrations, Protests and Occupations from the agenda of next week’s senate meeting — where it was expected to be approved despite much opposition — and launching a third round of consultations on a new protest management policy instead.
“It has become evident that further discussion on this complex issue would be helpful,” Michael Di Grappa, vice-principal of administration and finance for McGill, said.
“It’s safe to say there was no unanimity in what people were looking for, but what was clear was we needed more consultation and that as a community, we (must) come to some understanding of common values and principles.”
But Lilian Radovac, president of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill, called it a victory for the many unions that opposed the protocol.
Still, the unions weren’t so happy that they called off a planned protest for next Wednesday, when the protocol was to have been approved by the senate.
“We’re still going ahead with it because we’re not sure what McGill is up to, and we want to make sure they haven’t just renamed the document,” Radovac said. “They are still going ahead with some kind of protest management policy and we’re pretty happy with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms we have.”
Coming after a year in which radical student activism disrupted the McGill campus, the protocol aimed to set the parameters for acceptable and unacceptable militancy. But many argued the document was far too restrictive and would unfairly limit free speech on campus.
Philosophy student Eli Freedman was so incensed, he filed a grievance over it.
Di Grappa said rather than a protocol of operating procedures, the university will prepare a Statement of Values and Principles Concerning Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly that will be circulated on campus, with a goal of bringing a final draft before the senate this spring. There will be electronic consultation as well, he said.
Freedman said he was skeptical at best.
“The problem is the university still sees protesters as a liability,” he said. “We don’t need a policy saying we value these freedoms — they’re already protected by law.”