FREE
SPEECH AT U OF T
A. Upholding
The Principles Of Free Speech
Robert Birgeneau
University of
Toronto
The
University of Toronto made a
decision on Friday, Nov. 21 that is based on fundamental principles of
free
speech. The decision has prompted some controversy and I want to
elaborate on
the reasons behind our actions to ensure that the community understands
the
issues at hand.
A
recognized
student club, Al-Awda, requested the use of a room on campus to hold a
public
conference Nov. 22 and 23 titled the Toronto Palestinian Solidarity
Conference.
It came to the University's attention that, in order to attend the
conference,
all participants were required to agree to a Basis of Unity, as follows:
1.
We support the
Palestinian right of return. It is non-negotiable.
2. A two state
solution is not a viable or acceptable option for the Palestinian
people.
3. Israel is a
racist apartheid state.
4. Our activism is
imbued with an anti-colonial feminist practice.
5. We support the
right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli and colonialism (sic)
by any
means of their choosing.
6. Actions that we
organize at this conference will be developed under the framework of
respecting
a diversity of tactics.
Requiring
attendees to agree to the Basis of Unity excluded persons with
dissenting views
and was thus in violation of the University's Policy on Recognition of
Student
Groups, which, among other things, confirms
that “the essential
value
of the University
must remain that
of preservation of freedom of enquiry and association." It is also
important that all recognized campus groups adhere to the requirements
of the
Ontario Human Rights Code.
The
University was
prepared to continue the Al-Awda's booking of space if the group agreed
to
remove the requirement for participants to sign the Basis of Unity. The
public
conference could have proceeded if the group had been willing to allow
freedom
of expression, consistent with the University's Statement on Freedom of
Speech.
The student group had indicated that the Basis of Unity was required in
order
to provide a safe environment for discussion. The University does not
accept
that open discussion of the issues would have created an unsafe
environment and
had offered assistance in providing security and in preventing
disruption at
the event. We did so with the expectation
that
all members of the University community, when pursuing freedom of
expression,
would do so in a manner that respects the rights of others.
Al-Awda
declined
to remove the requirement for participants to sign the Basis of Unity
and
effectively precluded the conference from taking place.
It
is important
that our community understand that the decision to deny this student
group use
of University facilities unless it permitted other views to be
expressed was
not, in any way, a decision that the group would not be allowed to
express its
views in accordance with University policies. The ability to examine
and
comment on issues of the day is central to the mission of the
University.
As
the
university's Statement on Freedom of Speech indicates, "the essential
purpose of the University is to engage in the pursuit of truth, the
advancement
of learning and the dissemination of knowledge. To achieve this
purpose, all
members of the University must have as a prerequisite freedom of speech
and
expression, which means the right to examine, question, investigate,
speculate,
and comment on any issue without reference to prescribed doctrine, as
well as
the right to criticize the University and society at large…The
existence of an
institution where unorthodox ideas, alternative modes of thinking and
living,
and radical prescriptions for social ills can be debated contributes
immensely
to social and political change and the advancement of human rights both
inside
and outside the University.
"Often
this
debate may generate controversy and disputes among members of the
University
and of the wider community. In
such
cases, the
University's primary obligation
is to protect the free speech of all involved. The University must
allow the
fullest range of debate. It should not limit that debate by
preordaining
conclusions, or punishing or inhibiting the reasonable exercise of free
speech."
This
and all universities
are unique in society in guarding the principles of free expression
that have
been won over the centuries in the face of numerous attempts to thwart
them.
There is a far greater risk to our society when these tenets are denied
or made
subservient to doctrine and intolerance.
It
is my hope that
all members of the university community will work together in
sustaining our
tradition of tolerance, understanding and respect.
Statement
by U of
T President Birgeneau, November 24, 2003.
Newsletter, January 2004 -Text