“Until Palestine is Free”: Labour for Palestine - Canada’s statement on the student protests

Labour for Palestine - Canada unconditionally supports the student encampments that have emerged across Canada and Quebec. Inspired by their counterparts in the US, these students are bravely demanding that their tuition no longer be funnelled towards Israeli weapons and intelligence being used to carry out a genocide in Gaza. These students no longer wish to be complicit in the atrocities we are witnessing and are asking that their universities disclose all investments in Israeli occupation - and divest from them.

Labour for Palestine - Canada applauds the principled stance of these students and stands behind them in their fight for justice. Investment in weapons and genocide are inconsistent with the values that institutions of learning and progress profess to, and should, hold. The students are reminding us of this and we therefore urge university administrators across the country to cease their punitive actions towards students.

Let’s remember that these students are following a legacy of principled student organizing that played a crucial role in the US civil rights movements, the Vietnam war, and South African apartheid, among other struggles. But instead of applauding students for applying their lessons of justice in real time, administrators such as those at University of Guelph are threatening legal action against their students. Similarly, the University of Ottawa is threatening students with trespassing and eviction after engaging in bad faith negotiations with the students.

We say enough. Now is the time for unions both within and outside of universities to take a principled stance alongside these students. Like students, labour has a history of standing up for social justice and we answer the call for workers of the world to stand with Palestine. Like when we fought apartheid in South Africa, labour unions in this country must refuse to allow our work, workplaces, and pension investments support Palestinian genocide.

Labour for Palestine - Canada says it loudly and in solidarity with so many other organizations opposed to war and genocide: We urge universities to stop criminalizing student protesters and begin to engage in good faith dialogues about divestment from war. Students, many of whom are Palestinian themselves, are protesting because they simply cannot continue to remain passive in the face of genocide. We applaud these brave activists and stand shoulder to shoulder with them until Palestine is free.