Gratuitous police violence on campus in the wee hours last Saturday has obviously exacerbated the foolish blunder made by University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan when he called in the riot squad to clear out a small encampment of students protesting the ongoing destruction of Gaza.
Whether the university president came up with the brainstorm himself or was pushed into calling the cops by others, the pot is now boiling over and Mr. Flanagan’s departure is clearly on the growing protest movement’s list of objectives.
About 400 University of Alberta students, professors, staff, and even some of those dreaded “outsiders” gathered outside the campus administration building at noon yesterday and loudly demanded his resignation for siccing billy-club wielding Edmonton Police Service cops in miliary-style fatigues in on the peaceful Palestine solidarity encampment.
There were enthusiastic chants of “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Flanagan has got to go!”
But yesterday’s demonstration organized by Faculty for Palestine Alberta was only a part of the growing political problem faced by President Flanagan, who appears to have made things worse for himself with widely mocked claims in two statements published on the university’s website that the encampment “put the university community’s safety at risk.”
The faculty group published an open letter “against the brutalization of students at the hands of administrators at the U of A” that as of yesterday had been signed by 255 faculty members and 807 staff, students, parents, alumni and community members.
In addition to disclosure and divestment of university investments in Israel, the letter demands amnesty for all protesters caught up in the police raid, an apology and complete retraction of threats of discipline by campus security employees against protesters, and Mr. Flangan’s resignation.
Also yesterday, the University of Calgary’s respected law blog, ABlawg.ca, published “An Open Letter Regarding the Response to Recent Protests at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary” signed by 19 members of the U of C and U of A law faculties.
The letter expresses the signatories’ “deep concern about the violent infringement of students’ right to protest by the Calgary Police Service, Edmonton Police Service, University of Calgary, and University of Alberta on May 9 and 11, 2024.”
Among other things, that letter calls on the Alberta Crown Prosecution Services to withdraw all charges stemming from the breakup of encampments on both campuses, the referral of both clearances to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team for investigation, and revocation of trespass notices and removal of restrictions on students, staff, faculty, or alumni to be on campus stemming from the police actions.
This has obviously worried the Premier’s Office – which is widely suspected of having played some role in the two university administrations’ decisions to call in the cops. At any rate, Premier Danielle Smith yesterday told reporters she would ask ASIRT to investigate, although no one should expect that to result in meaningful criticism of the two police services’ actions.
On Monday, the U of A’s academic, non-academic and student unions jointly signed a letter to President Flanagan expressing “deep concern and disappointment” with the clearances.
“The visual evidence of the forceful removal of protestors has sent a chilling message to students, faculty, and staff, suggesting that dissent will be met with aggression rather than dialogue,” the union letter said. “This approach not only undermines the core value of freedom of expression but also poses significant risk to the reputation and perceived safety of our university, which should be a place of learning, not fear and intimidation.”
Yesterday’s protest was addressed by former U of A Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Natalie Loveless, who resigned Monday in response to the police violence and Mr. Flanagan’s statements, which she said in her resignation letter advanced “a description of events at odds with what I personally witnessed.”
In a list of requests to university leadership, Dr. Loveless urged the university to “immediately stop making unsubstantiated or spurious claims that the encampment was a danger and protesters were potentially violent.”
“The encampment was peaceful and modeled solidarity between Palestinian, Jewish, and Indigenous communities and allies,” she wrote. “None of the supposed threats to safety outlined in President Flanagan’s letters corresponds to my personal observations or the testimonies of many others who visited the camps.”
Whether President Flanagan can hunker down and ride his bad reviews out now depends on how his actions are seen throughout the broader university community.
University presidents are not elected, but there can come a point when even a conservative board of governors can no longer tolerate a president who has lost the respect of too many students and faculty. This is just practical politics.
Former NDP leader weighs in on the dangers of venturing into ‘Liberal-land’
In a rare post on his Grumpy Old Socialist blog, former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason has weighed in on Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan’s departure from the NDP leadership race and the NDP’s troubles winning back working class voters.
“Why are working people abandoning the NDP?” asked Mr. Mason. “In part, it’s because the NDP has abandoned them.”
“This phenomenon can be observed world-wide, as social democratic parties move to the right in an attempt to reach their elusive pot of gold,” Mr. Mason wrote. “Workers feel abandoned and become prey for conservative and far-right parties.”
Mr. Mason pointed to how several union members in the NDP’s 2015 caucus lost their nominations or decided not to seek reelection. “One reason was a desire by the party leadership to attract more professionals and business people, including those with connections to the energy industry. Some long term NDP activists were also passed over in pursuit of these goals.
“We are seeing the results of this policy today, as a huge liberal wave threatens to drown the social democratic elements of the party,” he said.
“If the Alberta NDP is to avoid permanently veering off into Liberal-land, it needs the labour movement more than ever,” Mr. Mason concluded.
It’s worth a read.
This seems a tad bit hypocritical of the UCP, doesn’t it?
https://twitter.com/TheBreakdownAB/status/1790183275744690474?s=19
News of the encampment raid has spread far and wide, catching the attention of the Gray Zone’s Max Blumenthal in New York.
https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1789666270301782114
In other news Zionist religious zealots, the source of all these troubles, are reportedly preparing to sacrifice some red heifers imported from Texas a couple years ago to fulfill some sort of biblical end times prophecy. In case you’re wondering what we’re dealing with.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/9/what-do-texan-red-heifers-have-to-do-with-al-aqsa-and-a-jewish-temple
As many alumni of the U. of A. have pointed out on social media, it’s going to be very difficult for Bill Flanagan to solicit donations from people who vehemently disagree with him for sending the riot police to attack protestors. It’s even worse that those robocops chased people, deploying non-lethal force, after they left university property, as witnessed by Prof. Loveless and documented in her resignation letter.
I suppose he could always go back to setting up endowments with money from donors like Yaroslav Hunka, as the U. of A. did, but genocide is genocide.
Bill Flanagan seems to think that alumni are “outsiders” who are not welcome on university grounds, even if they are parents and grandparents of the students who were attacked on campus by his goons. I guess the alumni should boycott Homecoming this year, since Bill Flanagan says they are “trespassing” if they set foot on campus. Flanagan U. does not include you.
Is Bill Flanagan now the chief of police in Edmonton? Has anyone seen Bill Flanagan or Dale McFee lately? Are they both hiding because this order came from the province? Is “Bill Flanagan” a government puppet or is he at the top of the chain of command? Will he send his enforcers to Edmontonians’ homes if they stick signs unkind to the elected officials of the day on their lawns? Police in Alberta no longer serve and protect the people of Alberta. That is a whole other story that needs to be addressed.
Bill Flanagan has lost the respect of alumni, students, their families, professors, the First Nations who were here before the colonialists arrived and the community at large. He must resign before the reputation of the university is tarnished beyond repair. His actions are reprehensible, although I can’t say they surprise me. One of his first actions affected the faculty I attended. I made my views known to the alumni association then. Bill Flanagan bites the hand that feeds him. He rose above his roots in Alberta, so high that he reached the sun and now he has come crashing down. Or is it that the roots of Bill Flanagan’s tree in Alberta are rotten? Just saying that I think it’s the latter. He’s lost his way. It’s time for him to step down and let this blight on the university heal. And disclose, divest, etc. If a university takes money from Nazis, what else are they hiding in their endowment funds? Bill Flanagan knows.
Certainly not the respected institution I graduated from years ago. Supporting genocide, turning a bunch of thugs (EPS) on peaceful student protesters. Maybe it’s time to return my degree as I don’t want to be associated with either of the above happenings.
An un-convocation ceremony, during Homecoming, on the quad. No respect deserved.
These events tarnished the institution’s reputation making the return of degrees an option. Mine has become a source of shame and can go back to the UofA. Others interested?
Flanagan misused the power of his position shamelessly, arbitralily, and autocratically.
This cuts both ways. I completed my first three degrees at U of A and quit donating after the institution awarded an honorary degree to celebrity activist David Suzuki. I might be tempted to resume donations due to these actions, especially if the school chooses not to refill the Dean of DEI position.
Angry mobs can never be allowed influence decisions. Otherwise what would be the purpose of boards and democracy in general?
These occupiers are idiots and hopefully few are actual students as that would reflect poorly on U of A’s reputation. If they had any grasp on reality, they would know that Canadian universities do not have large endowments like those in the US. I guess keeping up with their social media compatriots is more important than actual understanding.
Both U of C and U of A acted appropriately to end occupations. If professors, staff and students disagree, they are more than welcome to divest themselves of their jobs and post-secondary programs. Of course, few will because they are unlikely to have better opportunities elsewhere.
Three degrees, Doug. Really?
The first two didn’t take?
Given your belligerent and fascist comments, perhaps it’s now time for you to get an education.
Now, now, everyone, settle down! DJC
Doug: I would love to know what your “3 degrees from the U of A” were in. Did any of them teach you to check your facts before you shot off your mouth? You do understand the distinction between an opinion and evidence, don’t you? You also seem a bit socially innocent if you don’t understand the difference between a mob and a protest.
My experience of people like Flanagan and the police is they are easily frightened by anything outside of their rather constrained and isolated existences. The obvious war crimes and even possible genocide against the Palestinians by the nation state of Israel is one of the great moral fractures of our time. It makes me very uncomfortable, but I know lashing out against students pointing out this calamity will not change the facts.
The rank arrogance and hypocrisy on display here is outrageous, even for you “Doug”, of course you divested because something something David Suzuki, but these CURRENT TUITION PAYERS can’t make the same demand of THEIR university re: the genocide currently happening in Gaza, why ? Because of your smug ass ?
40,000 dead civilians, half of which are children, and you think those putting their own future (as you cowardly threatened) on the line to try to cease said genocide deserve truncheons and pepper bullets.
Shame on you.
I find it humorous that a small number of old-guard New Democrats are wringing their hands that working-class Albertans are now suddenly abandoning the NDP. 2015 was the first Alberta election since 1989 that the NDP received more than 11% of the popular vote. Unless “workers” make up significantly less than 10% of the population of Alberta (allowing for other types of progressives who also voted NDP) the party hasn’t had their support in at least 25 years! The big-tent version of the NDP had the support of more than 44% of voters in 2023 – by far the most ever for the party in Alberta. Unless almost half of Alberta voters are privileged progressives I feel quite assured that more working-class Albertans voted NDP in 2023 than did in, say, 2008 when the party received just over 8% of the popular vote. I’m sure those working-class voters are at a loss now to understand why so many prominent NDP voices have completely overlooked and discounted their contributions to the party’s recent electoral success. Nothing says “vote for us next time” like utterly overlooking and being unaware of those who supported you last time!
What really turns working-class voters off is progressives telling them that their livelihoods, culture, values, words, pastimes, and lifestyles are bad. You drive a truck – that’s bad. You work in (mining / forestry / oil and gas / chemicals / construction / aviation / transportation, etc.) you are killing the planet. You smoke and drink and eat margarine from plastic containers – that’s bad for your health. You live in a detached home – that’s bad for urban sprawl. You take the boat out for some fishing on the weekends – you’re ruining the water and killing the local flora and fauna. It goes on and on – the drip, drip, drip of condescension. The UCP, and conservatives governments for decades before them, have been giving working-class and rural Albertans the winning message that they are good enough the way they are. Progressives need to put down their glass of boutique wine, step out of their privileged Okanagan and suburban redoubts, and find ways to talk with (not to) working-class and rural Albertans without putting them down. That will be worth more than the promise of a government that will probably be friendly to workers if they ever get in power again.
If secessionists succeed maybe they’ll distinguish their new nation’s orthography by spelling “Dipper” “Dripper” \;~)
What? Progressives don’t drive trucks, eat margarine or live in single-family homes? They do drink boutique wine and own second homes in the Okanagan? Man, what a life!
Stop whining about your hurt feelings, nobody has said any of that to you personally. We have problems as a society and we need to change as a society, so get off your butt and wrk with other people to adapt to changing times.
Like it or not we all have the same choice: adapt or die.
Well said, Homer. That’s literally what I was saying in my leadership campaign. Working people don’t feel comfortable in the NDP, partly because they think we suck at the economy and partly because they feel that the party looks down on them. I talked about that problem in my “exit” interview with Ryan Jespersen yesterday https://www.youtube.com/live/ItcPA73_0vw?si=NKVQogMzYbFiM_7b
A song for you then! https://youtu.be/UrgpZ0fUixs?t=5
What turns off working class voters is a laundry list of right wing grievances? Who wrote this, the national post !?
Where are these “progressives ?” Most of the folks I know on the left are concerned with housing, a more equitable economy, freedom for Palestine, maybe some environmental responsibility before the oils all gone and we’re all left holding the bag of toxic, radioactive poison.
The NDP could do a lot better on the workers file, including campaigning to raise the minimum wage once more (they were the first, now we’re among the lowest in the country again), advocating for rent control, maybe taking aim at some of these retail
Monopolies that don’t care if half their spaces are vacant as long as the other ones are paying exorbitant rent, which is why our high street and downtown is so bad at this moment ; no one can afford the rent ! Those things would help working albertans a lot. Pretending the only electoral strategy is to cave to right wing grievances, or that they somehow represent a homogenous view of “working class” people is nonsense, it’s not on offer either.
Flanagan may well pay for his hasty decision to get rid of the protesters on the pretext of safety. Yes, the University President is appointed by the government, but he or she needs some credibility and support to run the place and he seems to be losing that. Smith may be sad to lose such a good toady, but she may well try distance herself from this problem by replacing him, even if she was the one who pressured him into doing this. For a once self proclaimed Libertarian like Smith, I find it very odd that in power she now tries to control everything so much, but as her political history shows consistency is not her strength. Fortunately, there are limits to what can be controlled by those currently in power.
The world is mixed up these days with Liberals at times sounding like NDPers and vice versa. I feel this will sort itself out better after the next Federal election. A big part of the problem is the Federal NDP is tied to the Federal Liberals for now and once the shipped has sailed it is hard to get off it until the inevitable end, as the Federal NDP is now finding out. However, Mr. Mason’s statement also seems a bit nostalgic and oppositional to me. Liberals could well argue they accomplished much more than him over the years, although the NDP could argue back that was because they held their feet to the fire a number of times. In any event, the argument that people are voting for conservatives because the NDP are not left enough any more does not make logical sense to me.
It’s almost as if these university presidents walked into a trap. Now they’re going to destroy our beloved places of higher learning as they try to get out of it.
Completely unrelated, absolute power, or the perception of it, corrupts absolutely. Hello, President Sith.
@homer – Well said.
I have been on both sides – I have worked in forestry, I drive a truck, and I live in a detached home. I also have a BSc in Computing.
I voted ABC (anyone but conservative, just not NDP), until the 2015 election. The reason I switched was because Notley took the party to “big tent”.
I expect whoever wins to keep the party inclusive. Indeed, staying inclusive is my primary prerequisite for continuing to support the ABNDP.
It used to be a truism in Canadian politics that parties campaign from the left or right, but govern from the centre. The NDP would do well to campaign AND govern from the centre, come next election.
The Notley NDP didn’t govern as true socialists or even marginally left-wing. Had they done so, we’d now have
– public auto insurance*
– Crown-owned public utilities for power and gas
– Alberta Registries outlets that are government offices and not private contractors
– no more taxpayer funding of private schools
… and so on and so on and so on.
But that kind of platform would never fly in Alberta, *although public auto insurance might gain some traction. A pragmatic sensible government that doesn’t try to be too radical or doctrinaire is the key to success for Western Canadian New Democrats, and Alberta is no exception.
New Democrats need to follow the “Willy Sutton rule” of Canadian politics: go where the voters are at.
…in the meantime the squatters at Lacombe rest stop have been squatting there 41 days now with no sign of any police action. Go figure!!
I wonder which UCP appointed political commissar directed Flanagan to call in the storm troopers? Whatever! This is just further evidence that under the UCP, Alberta is looking more and more like a single-party authoritarian state.
Rule of law and due process? Freedom of assembly and speech in the one place it should be sacrosanct? Not in UCP Alberta. What a collection of hateful cowards and bullies. If you liked what the EPS did to a bunch of harmless kids early in the morning, you are going to love having an Alberta Provincial Police force.
Kang: I don’t know who told Mr. Flanagan what to do, but I have heard that Rajan Sawhney, the minister of advanced education, was spotted on the U of C campus on the Thursday before the action Friday by the Calgary Police Service. Could be a mistake, could be coincidence, but it’s suggestive of something happening. DJC
I heard some public sector union members were spotted on campus on Thursday as well. Could be coincidence, could be a mistake.
Yes because the union representing the rank and file at any institution is on the same level as the premier and cabinet.
Shut up. You’re spouting nonsense.
Given the rising temperature in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s determination to obey the wishes of the hawks/genocidal Maniacs in his war cabinet, there is no doubt that Netanyahu will use the rising crisis to save his own hide. Facing multiple prosecutions from the Israel courts for a wide number of crimes, he is in an impressive pile of Trump-stuff. Going so far as to legislate far-reaching constitutional powers for his own office, puts Netanyahu in league with some of the more authoritarian characters trolling these days. And, just to prove that Israel is capable of being just, their supreme court slammed down on Netanyahu’s power grab by a narrow decision, effectively calling him out for his nefarious fantasies.
As we are witnessing, desperate men do crazy things. Netanyahu seems to be prepared to take that path of the least resistance and score points with Jewish nationalists, Zionist religious fanatics, and garden variety nutters. This means he intends to roll the IDF into Rafah and let the chips fall where they may. The US will protest as much as they like, but they are very much beholden to the Israelis and their interests among US Evangelicals. In the end, if Rapture prophesy is to be believed, all the Jews will come to Israel and be killed, save for about 100 ascending to Heaven as Messianic Jews, Jesus returns, the ‘Left Behind’ prophesy begins, and the rest of us are forced to dwell in the world of the Antichrist. UN/WEF/Illuminati/globalist haters are big on this one. That’s a lot of bad SciFi in one box. Netanyahu is playing this like the psycho most Israelis know he is.
On the matter of the protest camps and learning that the government favours certain protesters over others, requesting a police to run amok and crush a protest is not only untoward, it’s a great condition for an immediate resignation.
Time to blow the dust off my Buffalo Springfield vinyl LP and play, “For What It’s Worth”
Or better yet, “Ohio” by CSN&Y.
This article warned of the dangers of a shift to a top-down non-collegial style of administration at Canada’s public universities.
https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2020/09/contest-over-restructuring-and-collegial-governance-university-alberta-could-set
Here we are in 2024 with the University of Alberta (and others) increasing its reliance on corporate donors and philanthropic funding, due to government funding cuts. In collegial times, the faculty could have advised administrators of the folly of inviting the riot police to campuses. No more! Who is bending President Bill Flanagan’s ear now — those corporate donors and philanthropists? How do *put our name on your building* sponsors see students anyways?
Getting back to why the students are protesting, as universities are forced to increase their investment income, are they willing to assume greater risks and invest in companies that enable genocide? The U.of A. did accept cash from a Nazi, but returned it during the Yaroslav Hunka scandal of 2023.
Billions of dollars are on the line. Anything for a buck, if it preserves the income stream? We got our answer last week during the campus smackdowns. It’s the wild, wild west. All cheques, no balances.
DJC— So I don’t know if this relates to what is happening with the police crackdown at the universities and what happened at the homeless camps earlier this year, but something about the article had the hair on the back of my neck crawling; maybe just being a wee bit paranoid, or too soon to tell?
CTV news May 15th– George Lee The Macleod Gazette….
Evolving justice system gets strategic and widespread Alberta support, minister says.
“A changing and diverse justice system– beyond the courtroom–has earned government support across much of the province,Justice Minister Mickey Amery ,said in an interview last week.
” I want our justice system to encompass more than just prisons and prosecutions ,said Amery, so I want to able to reach out to the community and say there are many different ways that we could achieve appropriate justice in this province without always having matters land before a judge in a courtroom. “………
Spidey senses are tingling.
Real or imaginary?
Randi-lee: Probably real. Certainly the UCP wants and plans to impose unconstitutional involuntary custodial drug treatment without the inconvenience of due process. This will give the police the ability to sentence intoxicated people on the street to custody where, at least theoretically, they would not have access to legal representation – because it’s therapy, y’know? If you want to get paranoid about that kind of thing, you may recall the alleged use in the Soviet Union of psychiatric treatment for political dissidents. DJC
Great column. I was present when the encampment setup last week and I found it to be very peaceful and constructive for students and others to express their outrage, anger, despair and concern about the issues in Gaza. The police and the University overreacted. Anyone who says that they were afraid of the encampment has been consuming too much mainstream media and are letting their fears to get to them. If they saw it they would see that their fears were totally baseless even if they didn’t agree with the people in it.