Protesters chant outside of a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the University of Toronto campus in Toronto on May 2.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
On Sunday night, I took a walk around the self-proclaimed “People’s Circle for Palestine.” King’s College Circle, at the centre of the University of Toronto’s downtown campus, was a hive of activity. The administration fenced off the area in a bid to prevent it becoming an encampment, but the fencing is now at the service of the protesters, allowing them to control the area inside, which is the size of a couple of football fields, and keep others out.
At the gate at the north end, there’s a constant flow of people coming and going. Almost everyone is masked. There are masked sentries at intervals inside the fence, and more masked people outside. As I did a lap of the perimeter at 11 p.m., protesters were busy stapling blue plastic tarps onto the fence, creating six-foot-high privacy screens.
It’s basically a gated community.
This protest and others like it are the latest manifestation of the long-running BDS movement – the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. The aim is to persuade governments, businesses and universities to apply economic pressure on Israel. The model is the 1980s movement to divest from apartheid-era South Africa. The protesters want economic tools to be used against Israel, which they almost always refer to as an “apartheid” state.
According to a May 2 posting on X from UofT Occupy for Palestine – the account is only a month old – their demands are that the university make public all of its short- and long-term investments; divest from “all direct and indirect investments that sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine”; and cut ties with Israeli universities that “support or sustain the apartheid policies of the state of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
The group, which claims to be running the U of T encampment, says that “students will continue occupying the People’s Circle for Palestine until the #uoft Administration publicly commits to meeting all three of our demands immediately.”
Some people have defended the growing number of campus occupations as nothing more than an exercise of the right to free speech. But that misunderstands what free speech is, and why it’s the cornerstone constitutional right.
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The protection of free speech – especially the expression of unpopular ideas – strengthens our liberal, democratic, tolerant society. But the appropriation of the label of free speech by things that aren’t speech, and that involve actions that infringe on the rights of others, undermines our liberal, democratic, tolerant society.
You may have noticed that the U of T encampment, and others like it, are almost never referred to in the mainstream media as “peace protests.” That’s fair, because they aren’t peace protests.
On the fence at the U of T encampment, as well as among the tents inside, are signs and banners expressing the participants’ views. There are no calls for Israel’s civilian hostages to be released. There are no calls for negotiation of a two-state solution. There is no criticism of Hamas. There is no recognition of Israel.
Other than a couple of surprising signs from a left-wing Iranian group, which opposes both Israel and its chief antagonist, the Islamic Republic of Iran – “anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism,” reads one of its posters, “anti-Islamic fundamentalism is not Islamophobia” – the rest is straight from the cosplay collection of left-wing tropes. The words on the fence express the hope of victory and liberation through uprising and revolution, in Palestine and beyond.
That’s not my jam, and it probably isn’t yours, but no matter: Canadian law and tradition believe deeply in free speech.
Do you think Israel is a criminal apartheid state? That the land “from the river to the sea,” which includes the entire territory of Israel, should be “liberated”? That Israel should not exist? I don’t agree, but again: That’s not legally relevant. In Canada, you have the right to express almost any and every idea.
Want to march through town carrying banners calling for divestment from Israel? Or the opposite – investment in and support for Israel? Planning a protest for drug decriminalization? Or drug recriminalization? I’ll defend your right either way and, more importantly, so will the law. The police will even help you, as they have done since Oct. 7, with scores of loud but legal pro-Palestinian marches through the streets of Toronto and other cities.
But what if you park yourself in the middle of a private or public space, set up an encampment, and refuse to leave “until our demands are met”?
How is that any different from the 2022 Ottawa occupation?
Imagine if a Christian campus group took over King’s College Circle, and said it would remain until the university stopped funding anything to do with abortion. Should they be removed? Why? If your answer is they have to go because their opinions are wrong, you’re standing free speech on its head. This is Canada, not the People’s Republic of China.
The legal problem with an occupation, left or right, pro-Palestinian or anti-vaccine, isn’t what its participants are saying. It’s what they’re doing – taking over a space and holding it hostage.
What does that have to do with free speech? Nothing.