Education
McGill University is asking for police assistance to deal with pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have been encamped on the Montreal campus for four days. Demonstrations have also appeared at other Canadian universities, prompting the institutions to issues warnings against holding encampments.
The demonstrations are similar to ones being held on university campuses in the United States, calling for an end to the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
Canadian protesters have told media they are calling for the university to stop funding any companies and organizations that have dealings with Israel.
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Read More“Students occupying the building face expulsion.”
Columbia University has warned students who took over and barricaded themselves inside a building on campus as part of an ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstration that they face now expulsion.
Protesters first took over Hamilton Hall early on Tuesday morning after defying orders to disperse from an earlier encampment they had set up at Columbia University’s Morningside Campus in New York City. Participants were seen vandalizing the building and moving furniture and other items into the entryways.
In a statement Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said “students occupying the building face expulsion,” and those who defied the earlier calls to disperse on Monday were being suspended.
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Read MoreIn the so-called Gaza “encampment movement,” as the media has dubbed it, pro-Palestine protesters have set up fencing and tents on campus, contrary to university rules and policies, at the University of Ottawa, at McGill University in Montreal, and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
One of the protesters at UBC was quoted as saying: “As Canadians, we have the right to demonstrate peacefully as long as there is no violence. We have the right to protest this. … We believe we have the freedom of speech, which is not taken away from us.”
Freedom of speech does not include a freedom to disregard university rules and policies, as long as those rules and policies are enforced fairly and equally for all groups, regardless of the group’s beliefs or opinions. Colleges, universities, and other government bodies are entitled to regulate the time, place, and manner of expression permitted on public property. To be reasonable, such restrictions must be applied neutrally to all groups, and should not target the content of the expression. For example, universities are within their rights to ban tent cities, overnight displays, excessive noise, and protests that interfere with students and professors going about their business. Conversely, universities have no right to suppress content because it is offensive and unpopular, for example, pro-life speech on campus.
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Read MoreOff-campus work will be limited to 24 hours a week, down from the current 40.
Starting this fall, international students can work a maximum of 24 hours a week off campus, down from the current 40 hours during the school year.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the federal government will restore the weekly work-hour ceiling, which was lifted during the pandemic to allow international students to ease Canada’s labour shortage and reduce the financial burden that students faced amid the rising costs of living.
“It was a successful measure in helping our economy recover from the pandemic and is therefore no longer necessary,” Miller told reporters during a scrum Monday. “To be clear, the purpose of the international student program is to study and not to work.”
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Read MoreLouisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced a lawsuit on Monday against President Biden’s Department of Education over the new Title IX rule.
“Today, I am announcing that we have officially filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Education, to save Title IX and protect the myriad of interests threatened by these new regulations,” she wrote on X on Monday.
Murrill also said that “the consequences will be shocking and severe. Boys and girls will be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and perhaps even lodging on overnight field trips with members of the opposite sex.”
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Read MoreLess than a year after Ontario’s education minister called on school boards to return to back to basics learning, the Toronto District School Board has released a new four-year plan that places wokeness, anti-black racism and Truth and Reconciliation at the forefront.
In fact, the tone-deaf Multi-Year Strategic Plan (MYSP) doesn’t just emphasize that “equity” is the foundation of all of the board’s work: it states flat out in a TDSB policy paper embedded in the plan that the board’s version of equity ensures equality of “opportunities and outcomes” for all students.
“Equity ensures equality of opportunities and outcomes for all by responding fair (sic) and proportionality (sic) to the needs of individuals,” the equity policy states.
“Equity is not the same as equal treatment because it recognizes a social-cultural Power Imbalance that unfair Privilege (sic) some while oppressing others and therefore focuses on redressing Disparity.”
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Read MorePro-Palestinian protesters are urging McGill and Concordia universities to stop investing in funds and academic institutions connected to Israel, echoing the calls of student protesters in the U.S.
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Read MoreA Catholic 16-year-old student at an Ontario Canada public high school has been suspended and is facing expulsion for wearing a shirt with an inscription reading “There are only two genders”. The VP ordered the young man to the office demanding he remove the hoodie or be suspended. When Malachy O’Kane said that he was just expressing his beliefs in the same way the many LGBT posters at the school were expressing opposing beliefs the VP walked out of the room. Now, Malachy finds himself at the center of a fiery international debate on freedom of expression, biological truth, and the uncompromising LGBT agenda. As the LGBT cult rages for greater control, Malachy’s unwavering stance challenges this movement — while also shining a light on his school officials that have suspended him. Despite the suspension, Malachy is standing firm, trusting in God, relying on his Catholic faith, and becoming a symbol of truth in the face of adversity.
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Read MoreIn the wake of the antisemitic protests at Columbia University, Donald Trump stated that the previous situation in Charlottesville was akin to a “peanut” compared to what’s happening at universities around America right now. He’s not wrong.
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Read MoreOne of the Columbia protest organizers makes clear just how much he hates Jews; USC cancels its commencement out of fear of protesters; and the Supreme Court considers whether Donald Trump has presidential immunity.
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