Weeks after the corporations profiting from human rights violations in Palestine.
As an alumnus who is well-accustomed to the violent and colonial response of Queen’s istration and students to the Palestinian cause, I’m inspired by the bravery of individuals involved in QUAD and SPHR.
However, it’s difficult to disregard the small numbers in which protestors are forced to gather and the unwavering involvement in the genocide in Gaza—Queen’s is a university desperate to maintain its fast-crumbling position as a home for Canada’s rich and white elite, even if it means destroying itself.
And this isn’t the first time.
While Queen’s touts its divestment from South African apartheid as an accomplishment, it divested two full years after most other Canadian universities, with McGill being the first to do so in 1985.
There’s also an insidious history at Queen’s of sacrificing academic integrity in service of white supremacy and classism.
In the early 2000s after experiencing racism. There’s little evidence the University has rectified this issue—with a select few faculty of colour continuing to carry the burden of having to address racism in their workplaces and classrooms.
Academic institutions require diversity in thought and perspective to thrive, and the severe lack of racial and ethnic diversity at Queen’s is evident as the school lags behind other Canadian academic institutions.
It’s not surprising Queen’s recently fell from its position as a top 15 research University after not being able to take care of its non-white professors.
The abhorrent environment for faculty of colour parallels the circumstances faced by students of colour. Stolen by Smith (SBS), launched in 2020, starting a nationwide conversation about student experiences with racism, with Queen’s and its elite programs at the epicentre.
Despite the many platitudes delivered by s following SBS, I don’t doubt that these mortifying experiences continue—and they don’t stop at graduation, either.
When I was accepted into law school, the part I looked most forward to was shedding my Queen’s ties after earning my second degree.
As by Anita Jack-Davies, Med ’07, PhD ’11, some of Queen’s most brilliant and thoughtful undergraduates go on to become successful and thoughtful professionals who “do not take part in Homecoming” because they are “haunted by their former experiences as students.”
As a high schooler, I wanted nothing more than to be cloaked in tricolour, but by the time I graduated, I had a desperate need to cut ties with Queen’s.
I needed to be done with the casual racist remarks made about my upbringing in Scarborough, the demands that students of colour stop complaining about the exclusion and vitriol they face, and the Islamophobic accusations lodged in the way of any student who dared speak about Palestine.
I still sitting alone in my student house as my peers, and even some faculty, accused me of being a terrorist for speaking up against the May 2021 bombings in Gaza. I’ll never forget when Principal Patrick Deane released a cold statement calling my co-editor during my time as Editor in Chief of The Journal and myself “polarizing,” condoning the harassment we faced.
Now, as a Columbia Law School student, the one aspect of my Queen’s experience I’m thankful for is my ability to accept the uncaring and incompetent actions of university s.
I was unsurprised when Columbia University President Minouche Shafik called for police to shut down the student occupation of Hamilton Hall in a violent seize, just as I was unsurprised the first time she brought a swarm of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers to campus only two weeks earlier.
Just as Queen’s now threatens the use of police against peaceful protesters under the guise of preventing “aggressive acts,” President Shafik told NYPD there was a threat of danger the first time they cleared Columbia’s encampment. The NYPD later confirmed protestors were “peaceful [and] offered no resistance whatsoever.”
Even though Columbia is a global leader in academia and Queen’s is distinctly not, the parallels couldn’t be clearer.
It’s imperative Queen’s divests from the genocide in Gaza, or else it risks cementing its reputation as a racist institution entirely uninterested in liberatory movements.
Pro-Palestine protestors on the ground today are experiencing the kind of anti-Palestinian sentiment that has long plagued the University. Their experiences of being due to these safety concerns.
Beyond the threat to student safety, Queen’s refusal to stand with Palestine is an intellectual failure.
Queen’s neglect to heed the concerns of its student population and instead silence free speech surrounding Palestine, is just one of the ways in which the University denies itself the opportunity to house rich and thoughtful academic discourse.
Queen’s is a university that’s willing to sacrifice students’ academic growth in service of unethical and unprofitable investments in Israel.
Columbia at least has some evidence its immoral of genocide serves its goals. It remains an Ivy League institution with a steady stream of alumni donations and an extremely talented faculty roster.
Queen’s, however, is holding onto an outdated and pathetic image. In addition to its fall in academic rankings, the school faces bankruptcy, with students and faculty alike finding it increasingly unattractive to spend their time here.
On the table, the University has received an excellent proposal from QUAD—a devoted group of students. This proposal outlines why divestment from Israel is not only financially profitable but also presents the opportunity to be a true change maker.
While you may have us for the years we’ve taken out OSAP loans, your students of colour can and will go elsewhere if you fail to do the right thing. Queen’s—it’s time to prove, for once, that you can be better.
As put by QUAD, “divest from death, and invest in life.”
Aysha is a Comm ’22 graduate and former Editor in Chief of The Journal.
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Matthew
Not a genocide, and are you classifying all Jews and Israelis as white? And liberatory movement… calling October 7th liberatory is blatantly antisemetic.
Leila
I graduated from Queen’s. It is a reputable and honourable institution and I am glad that it refuses to abandon its virtues in the wastebasket of Hamas-ism. I wore a hijab until 16 when I realized how big a symbol of misogyny it was. All religions are nonsense but Islam is one of the most pernicious, especially for women, where, in some places (viz. Afghanistan) women can’t vote or drive cars, show their unveiled faces, let alone attend university.