U of T faculty who don’t leave pro-Palestinian encampment before deadline could face termination
U of T faculty who don’t leave pro-Palestinian encampment before deadline could face termination
The faculty association believes it’s the first time professors have faced such a public threat from the university administration. Protesters and school officials are set to meet Sunday evening.
Pro Zionist fascists strike once again. Why the fudge is this ok?
Because these people write big endowment cheques to the university, whereas faculty and students are just blood-sucking overhead.
This is interesting to watch, in sad sort of way: the universities were generally fine with protests and activism as long as it didn't cost them anything or threaten their donors' ego. LGBTQ or race issues? Fine, that's okay, no threat there, heck painting things rainbow and waving flags makes us feel good! Offend some rich donors and out comes the proverbial--if not literal--nightsticks.
I still remember being at UofT in 1995 and the only protests (on campus, not those directed at Harris) were when the administration got uppity that bands and student groups were making it hard to hear the TD Bank pavilion's marketing spiel as they tried to hook students on 25% credit cards. Normal drunken debauchery-slash-activism was fine, but don't dare get in the way of profits!
Am I the only one who thinks protesting against your employer and causing a disruption in your workplace is a FAFO scenario?
There was that woman a few years back (in the olde tymes, before the pandemic) who decided she wasn't going to do her job when LGBT couples applied for marriage licenses. Everyone with an IQ over 80 rightly called her out for her bullshit.
This isn't really any different. You can't support employees who exercise their individual freedoms to protest against an employer only when the cause is something you agree with.
Discriminating against people who haven't hurt anybody just because someone thinks they are lesser beings seems quite different from trying to get your employer to stop supporting people slaughtering an entire country and innocent people. If anything the person discriminating against LGBTQ couples is more like the Israelis who are butchering humans than the people protesting the violence.
Strange stuff. It would be interesting if the USW calls a strike vote over this. It would also be interesting to see how the members vote.
Meric Gertler doesn't like when students protest against big oil or Israel. He's a brilliant scholar in his domain but he lets his obvious bias show a little too often lately. A few years ago he also blocked the hiring of an internationally-renowned human rights lawyer because she had done done legal work on Israel in a somewhat critical way and that pissed-off a Jewish rich donor to the law school (Spiro). Make what you want of it all but I personally think it sends all sorts of wrong messages and doesn't reflect positively on UofT.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The University of Toronto Faculty Association reacted with surprise and alarm to a school warning that professors and staff who refuse to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus before a Monday morning deadline could face disciplinary measures, including termination.
In a letter to its members late Friday, the faculty association executive said it’s the first time, to their knowledge, that professors have faced such a public threat from the university administration when exercising what they described as their rights to academic freedom and free expression.
According to the trespass notice, students who fail to leave by Monday morning could be subject to discipline, including sanctions as severe as a five-year suspension or a recommendation of expulsion.
In an April 30 letter to University of Toronto president Meric Gertler, UTFA executive committee argued that a blanket ban on encampments is an unreasonable restriction on freedom of expression rights, which are also protected under the code of student conduct.
In response, Kristin Taylor, university counsel and chief legal officer, said in a statement Saturday that any notion that the campus is not private property has no basis in fact.
Further raising the stakes surrounding this encampment, the Ontario Federation of Labour has called on all trade unions to join a solidarity rally at King’s College Circle at 8 a.m. Monday.
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