University Politics

"We didn't know if it was safe to leave. We were basically trapped in the room until Campus Safety sent more officers, who then made sure that students inside (the council chambers) could get to the elevators." Emile Scheffel, Ottawa Israel Awareness Committee.

Carleton University's student council has been deservedly commended for standing their ground, for refusing to submit to, and abandon their principles at the demand of a radical student group. The group determined to influence the student council's decision-making over a profoundly controversial and socially troubling political stance brought forward by the group, determined to de-legitimize a democratic society.

"I was very pleased with CUSA council. They were under a lot of pressure and they handled it well", Carleton's director of student affairs said, at the conclusion of the meeting which he was witness to. He is under some scrutiny for being somewhat slow in recognizing the oppressive state of safety perceived by those under verbal attack, fearing violence to follow.

At the conclusion to their meeting, Carleton University's student council had chosen not to emulate the ostracizing politics of the United Nations Human Rights Council in their decision, despite raucous intimidating pressure from the radical student group calling themselves Students Against Israeli Apartheid to indulge in a process of social sequestering of a single country held by them to be outside the pale of social acceptance.

This can only be construed as a truly refreshing turn of events, given the outsize success on previous occasions by the vociferous, bombastic, self-righteous anti-Israel group that has allied itself with national and international Jew-baiting groups seeking to disenfranchise Israel from its place of honour among civilized societies.

The motion before the Carleton University Students' Association council was to urge the university to divest its faculty pension plan from identifiable companies doing business with Israel. Thus placing financial pressure on those companies resolved to treat Israel no differently than any other investment opportunity; ultimately to force them in self-interest to fracture business ties.

Witnesses describe seeing a rowdy crowd numbering between 80 and 100, milling about in a hallway outside the Dunton Tower council chambers, awaiting the decision of the council deliberating the issue. Upon hearing of the decision reflecting the council deliberations, those in the crowd outside the chamber joined the handful inside by shouting and banging their outrage on walls.

Additional Campus Safety officers were finally called to protective duty so the chamber could be vacated and council members could leave in safety. The student council members had chosen to reject the motion, installing in its stead one that urged Carleton University to recognize ethically responsible investment opportunities; finding it unnecessary to single out any one country for condemnation.

"My personal safety was threatened repeatedly" one CUSA councillor, Hashem Hamdy, said. "Those opposing the motion were subject to intimidation, physical confrontation, and homophobic slurs inside and outside the council chamber. They don't seem to recognize that in a democracy, you don't have a licence to riot just because someone opposes what you say."

Bravo.