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  • Respect Our Representatives

    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
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