Send Email to the Leadership of the University of Calgary In Response to Police Brutality on Student Encampment for Palestine

Written by University of Calgary Divest for Palestine

Published in News

University of Calgary Divest for Palestine has created an email template to be sent to the leadership of the University of Calgary in response to the police attack on the student encampment for Palestine.

To send an email (ensure to edit to personalize it), click here

Read the Email Message below:

On October 10th, you quickly released a university-wide email standing in solidarity with Israel. When questioned, you stated that you decided to address that specific incident rather than any greater context. You were prompt and enthusiastic to address an issue taking place across the world. Yet when UCalgary students stand just a 5-minute walk from your office on May 9th in the TFDL quad requesting to speak to administration, they are ignored. Ironically, that morning, you attended a pluralism conference in the Rozsa Theatre, right across from the encampment, speaking on the importance of pluralism on campus.

The UCalgary encampment was a peaceful, non-violent, and collaborative demonstration placing rightfully deserved pressure on the university administration to reconsider their investments in weapons companies and companies involved in an ongoing genocide. With heavy university tuition costs, students have the right to know where their money is being spent. Participants were wholly cooperative, made their demands clear, and established a series of community guidelines for participants to ensure a safe environment. If asked, anyone who attended the protest would reaffirm its positive, uplifting nature: a diverse mosaic standing in solidarity.

University encampments are not a new innovation; dozens of encampments have been established across the United States, and every major Canadian city has one. Positive and poor responses from the university administration have been broadcast across news stations for weeks. Despite all this, neither you nor any executive university leadership member made a statement or spoke to the encampers. Rather, you sent campus security to notify them that they were trespassing and called on an unprecedented police response to brutalize and violently remove your own students from campus.

The University of Calgary was not the only university that started an encampment on May 9th. Our neighbours, the University of Alberta, started an encampment at the exact same time. Rather than unleash an armed police force on unarmed students, Bill Flanagan, the President of UAlberta, and your colleague decided to release a balanced public statement on the matter. This is the stance taken by every other major university president in Canada regarding encampments, even ones much larger than the encampment seen at UCalgary. Your response to this situation as leader of the university has been dismissive, insulting, and has tarnished the relationship of the university executive leadership with the student body.

As such, we ask that you:

issue a public apology on the handling of the non-violent and peaceful encampment, including a statement recognizing the ongoing humanitarian disaster and genocide in Gaza
issue a report and review of UCalgary procedures and processes on handling campus-related protests and demonstrations
reach out to encampment organizers and open a dialogue regarding the encampment demands with a good-faith effort to reach a resolution
remove any academic sanctions that the university may have intended to place on any students involved in the demonstration
resign from your position as president, considering the use of explosives, non-lethal weapons, and riot gear on unarmed UCalgary students.

As president and leader of this university, we expect a high standard of integrity, transparency, and accountability. We believe you may also stand for those values, but words are only words. Action must be taken. I look forward to your timely reply, and thank you for taking the time to read this letter and my concerns.

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