RESPECT OUR REPRESENTATIVES

McGill Daily
Oct 15, 2009

When last week’s Choose Life event "Echoes of Holocaust" ended with the
arrest of two McGill students, many argued that this could have been
avoided if the administration had honoured SSMU Council’s resolution
that the event not be held in the first place.

Last Thursday’s Controversial Events Town Hall with Deputy Provost
(Student Life & Learning) Morton Mendelson was a prime opportunity
to address this recent altercation and the broader issues it
raises. Initially conceived in response to a talk last year in which
a speaker denied the hisotricity of the Armenian genocide, as well as
the display of flags on Lower Field commemorating casualties in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Town Hall was advertised as "an open
forum for all students to share their thoughts about controversial
events on our campus." Unfortunately, Mendelson maintained the
University’s characteristic laissez-faire approach to controversial
events, one that leaves him with all the power to decide when to make
exceptions and intervene.

Mendelson started the town hall with a speech outlining the
administration’s current beliefs, a move that indicated not interest
in student input, but a continued adherence to the University’s
old stance, which currently does not recognize the line between
fostering a diversity of opinion and actively permitting hateful,
hostile speech. Mendelson asserted that a university experience
should include at least once instance of being "troubled by something
you hear" – but he conflates being "troubled by" with being actively
harmed by speech. Events like Choose Life’s "Echoes of the Holocaust"
and Armenian Genocide denier Turkkaya Ataöv’s talk in early 2009
created a hostile environment for many students, which can actually
stifle the dissent of those targeted by hateful speech.

Mendelson justified Choose Life going ahead with their event
despite SSMU’s censure, and the University’s "SSMU is outside
the University, though students are not." We take issue with this
logic. SSMU executives are students, and are elected by other students
to represent their needs to the University. It seems nonsensical
therefore to ignore SSMU Council’s recommendations and still claim
to desire to communicate with the 20,000 students it represents.

According to Mendelson, the University has no obligation to honour
SSMU’s wishes. Yet it retains the ability to silence or limit protests,
like the one that disrupted "Echoes of the Holocaust," that could
permit students to bypass an administration unresponsive to their
elected officials.

The University has its priorities wrong when it comes to free
speech. Allowing the expression of hateful views – denial of genocide,
comparison of women who have had abortions to Nazis – while limiting
protest and ignoring the way hostile events silence the people they
attack is a seriously flawed policy. If Mendelson and the University
genuinely respect student input on the clubs and events that impact
campus life, we urge them to honour the collective voice of the
student body.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress