Super Bon!

I want to write about how great and emotionally powerful today’s protest was but since I had to leave once the general assembly started, I keep thinking about this picture instead.

This image is taken from Appendix 2 of the FY2012 McGill Budget Book. It represents the organizational chart for McGill University. What you are looking at is a chain of decision-making authority. Who is parallel to whom and who has authority over whom.

There was a lot of talk of democratic governance at today’s rally. I support it, but people need to know what lies ahead. Most senators will tell you that a large portion of that body’s work is symbolic. And if they don’t, this chart will since the senate is literally orbiting around in outer space, disconnected from any real power structure at McGill. Senate is at least nominally elected. All of the other positions are appointed or elected by a closed process.

If you want democratic governance with any actual authority, the organizational structure represented by this chart will need to change.

To borrow a line from my colleague Darin Barney, people often complain about governance, but they need to be ready to do the hard work.

Extra credit: redistribute wealth! Take a look at p70 of the budget book to start and figure out how to deal with budget shortfalls and pay MUNACA workers more (you’ll need to dig deeper but that’s a quick bird’s eye view to get you started and yes I have my own pet solution which is imperfect but a start). There is no legend as far as I can tell so you’ll need to interpret the map carefully on your own.

My name is Jonathan Sterne, I am a professor in Art History and Communication Studies and I am a member of MFLAG.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who demonstrated for access to education in Quebec last Thursday. I stand with you, and I especially stand with those of you who were hurt, herded or terrorized by the riot police. You did not deserve that.

Let’s consider the meaning of riot police appearing on campus for the first time since 1969. This is a truly exceptional event.

→ The police attack happened as protesters from the occupy movement were getting beat down in Berkeley.

→ It happened as the Euro is in crisis, as personal and national debt skyrockets across the West.

→ It happened as higher education is being defunded worldwide, as students are being asked to shoulder ever-increasing debt burdens for their educations, while their futures are ever-more uncertain.

→ It happened after more than two months of a strike by the people who make this school run. Our 1700 colleagues in MUNACA are some of the least-well compensated employees on campus.

→ It happened after Heather Munroe-Blum, along with university presidents across Canada, signed a new national accord that dangerously limits academic freedom and freedom of speech at universities across our country.

One of the administration’s first responses to the MUNACA strike was to bring in more security, and to give them a more visible presence on campus. They followed with an injunction that threatened police action against union demonstrators who disobeyed it. These are escalation tactics, and they carry a threat of violence with them. Violence begets more violence. They need to de-escalate.

The student movement, the MUNACA strike, and the fight to preserve academic freedom are all parts of a struggle to maintain basic, decent standards of higher education worldwide. Our crisis is part of the fallout from the great bank heist of 2008. Our situation is a subset of the conditions pointed to every day by the worldwide occupy protesters. But defunding is also a result of misplaced governmental priorities.

As we think about next moves, we will need to take time to heal. It won’t be easy. I’m angry and I suppose many of you are too. We are going to have to be the grown-ups here. The administration has commissioned a toothless and top-down inquiry. Neither the principal nor the provost has sent a letter of condolence and support to the students and faculty brutalized last week. They continue to escalate the conflict by bringing in more security and locking students and faculty out of the James Administration building.

Normally, this is where I would say the first principle of nonviolence is de-escalation. And it is and we should remember that. Because we are angry, we must hold ourselves to higher standards. But instead, let me say this.

In a moment of attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech, let’s exercise those rights like they matter.

In the face of administrative inaction, we should escalate our commitments to one another.

Let’s escalate our commitment to fair compensation for our colleagues in MUNACA.

Let’s escalate our pressure on government to fund universities well enough that anyone can attend, and that everyone who works in one can be fairly compensated.

Let’s escalate our demands from a tuition freeze to demands for better public schools and real university-readiness programs for kids who might not otherwise get to attend.

I believe in nonviolent protest, even when it is met with state violence.

I believe in the protesters,

and I believe in my students.

Believe in yourselves, and let’s work to right the course for this university, in this province and in the world.

Yesterday students, faculty and administrators began to react to the police invasion of campus and their abuse of students, protesters and faculty. There is much to report and much to say.

1. Here’s a CBC story, with video. What they left out was that Greg Mikkelson did try to leave campus and was blocked from doing so by riot police. I find it interesting that the police representative a) blamed the victim and b) justified their presence on the university campus on the basis of events that happened outside of it.

2. As the video shows, a group of us met on the steps outside James Admin Building, discussed what to do, signed a (n admittedly imperfect but eminently necessary) letter, and then tried to deliver it to the principal. As usual, I was there for awhile and then had to leave before it got to the delivery part, but this is clearly just the beginning of dealing with the issue. By the end the principal refused to meet with the crowd but allowed one professor and one student in to deliver the letter. The conversation did not go particularly well.

3. The reports I’ve heard from students (especially) have been positively horrifying. I don’t know who is comfortable saying what in public, but the response to the protesters seems to have gone beyond proportional to harassment and intimidation, and not just because of the pepper spray and tear gas.

4. The principal’s response has been totally insufficient. I will cut her a little slack for the CBC interview simply because I know how news is cut and edited, but this “a pox on both their houses” stuff connects two events that have little to do with one another, and suggests that there is some equivalence between them. Here is the English text of the letter she sent to all McGill staff and students yesterday:

(Une version française suivra.)

Message on behalf of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum

I write to you following the disturbing events of yesterday. I was not on campus and did not witness the events firsthand.

Based on what I have been told, I have today asked our Dean of Law, Daniel Jutras, to conduct an independent investigation of the events and to report back to me on his findings by December 15, 2011.

I am taking this action based on the following information provided to me today:

Late Thursday afternoon, a group of protesters entered the unlocked James Administration Building and forced their way from a reception area outside the offices of the Provost and the Principal, pushing staff in the process. Some of them were masked and hooded. They refused to identify themselves.

Security personnel were called to deal with the situation. Over the course of a few minutes, they ushered most of the protesters back to the reception area, but a few refused to leave my office. These individuals were carried out to the reception area under protest, where they were then left undisturbed.

As a protest grew outside the building, apparently encouraged by social media messages from the protesters within, all exits to the building were effectively blocked by protesters, and employees who were trying to leave the building to go home could not do so. It was clearly a tense, stressful situation.

Security personnel called Montreal police. Four officers arrived to survey the situation. Police in the building did not speak with the occupying protesters or interact with them in any way. At no time were the protesters detained by McGill staff.

I understand that the Provost and Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) spoke with the protesters more than once asking them what they wanted, and, about their plans and, ultimately, their desire to have the event end peacefully and safely. In exchange for a promise to leave immediately, quietly and peacefully, the Provost and Deputy Provost assured the protesters they would be allowed to leave the building with no consequences, including criminal charges, identification to police or disciplinary action on the part of the University. After consultation amongst themselves, they agreed and were escorted out by the Provost Anthony Masi and Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson.

The situation outside, and the presence of the riot squad, which dispersed the protesters by its usual means, was entirely directed by the Montreal police service.

The presence of riot police on our campus is shocking.

We as a community, need to fully understand the events and the responses to them and I trust Dean Jutras will conduct a thorough, impartial review.

I appreciate that the time pressure may have made this message less perfect than it could be (as was our letter), but here are some of the issues in what she wrote:

–> first and foremost, she failed to condemn the actions of police. I’m sorry, but there is no other possible moral position. “Shocking” is a hedge, and a bad one. The police action was excessive and condemnable. Anything short of that is complicit with it.

–> In 1997, students occupied the principal’s office and it didn’t go down like this. (thanks to Wendy for the link)

–> by their spokesman’s own account on the CBC, the presence of the riot police on campus had nothing to do with the occupation of the principal’s office

–> eyewitnesses describe McGill security directing police to disperse protesters. Someone even told me there is video on this but I have not seen the video.

–> this “a pox on both their houses” talk is inappropriate. Nonviolent occupation of administrative offices is a time-honored tradition of protest. Furthermore, THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN SOME UNARMED UNDERGRADUATES LOCKING THEMSELVES IN BUILDING AND ARMED POLICE ATTACKING, INTIMIDATING AND ABUSING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS AND BYSTANDERS.

–> by all accounts Dean Jutras is a good dean and a decent and collaborative person. But he reports to higher administration. Someone completely impartial, or a committee made up of administrators, staff, faculty and students (with equal representation) would have considerably more autonomy than a single person who is subordinate to people with whom he might need to find fault. The investigation needs to be a real investigation.

Let us hope she does better in her next communiqué.

5. I haven’t had much praise for higher admin here lately, so let us take a moment to appreciate that the provost and deputy provost negotiated peacefully with the students occupying the building, and that they offered the occupiers amnesty in exchange for ending the occupation. This is an important step, because it shows that university administrators can follow principles of nonviolence and de-escalation in moments of conflict. I would encourage them to think in the same terms as they encounter future conflicts with both unions and student groups, rather than escalating, as they have so many times this fall through PR messages and through actions like the injunction against the union.

Yesterday, thousands of Quebec CEGEP and university students took to the streets to protest a proposed elevation in tuition and fees. The route brought people together near Berri-UQAM (a metro stop) and then back to the McGill campus. This is where things got ugly. Not only did someone call in riot police on the protesters, the riot police indiscriminately attacked people who were already on campus before the protesters arrived including my colleague Greg Mikkelson who happened to be outside the James Administration Building. Here’s his account from last night:

Around 5pm today I got batoned, knocked down, and then pepper-sprayed
by the Montreal police in front of the James Administration Building.
Although I support the cause of the student rally against tuition hikes,
I had not participated in it. Instead, I was on my way out of campus to
get my kids from day-care. I stopped to witness the events in front of
the James, and apparently was too close for a group of three officers,
two of whom attacked me physically.

In one of her partisan emails to McGill faculty, aimed at turning us again MUNACA, Principal Munroe-Blum wrote that “we do not deface buildings and engage in physical threats,” implying that MUNACA did. Of course this was false, since an injunction is effectively backed by a threat of police violence. But yesterday’s violence was of a much more direct order. City police don’t just how up on university campuses. Schools have their own security forces, and often they are run as their own little mini-states. I can’t imagine that the city police would enter campus without permission from campus security, and that campus security would make such a decision without consulting someone in administration. But perhaps — despite seeing a well-organized and throughly contingency-planned operation while I was chair — this is not the case in this instance. Therefore:

I would like to know who invited riot police onto our university campus in response to a student protest.
I would like to know why the administration let this happen.
I would like for the Principal to condemn the use of excessive and indiscriminate force by Montreal riot police, and if the administration did invite them onto campus, to apologize to the McGill community.

—

Yes, I marched with the students on the McGill-to-downtown part of the route but my feet were soaked, my resolution weak, and I cut my losses and went home after standing around at Berri-UQAM for awhile. While I was there, I saw zero examples of bad behavior or violence. Just an orderly and loud demonstration.

Here’s the McGill Daily story.