Debate over academic freedom on Israel-Hamas war creates rift between UNB faculty, administration | CBC News (2024)

Tensions are growing between faculty and administrators at the University of New Brunswick over language used by the president in response to student-led demonstrations in solidarity with civilians in Gaza.

Also causing concern among faculty is a trespass notice issued to a professor for setting up a tent on the Saint John campus.

Earlier this month, the union representing faculty and staff at UNB filed a grievance against the university, arguing it violated its commitment to academic freedom when it issued the trespass notice to a biology professor who set up a tent as part of demonstrations against the Israeli military's offensive in Gaza.

It came just a week after UNB president Paul Mazerolle issued a statement about protests that had been occurring on the Saint John and Fredericton campuses.

WATCH | 'I'm feeling like I can no longer recommend that students come here, prof says'

In it, he begins by saying members of the UNB and the greater Fredericton and Saint John communities have engaged in peaceful protests on each campus in relation to the war in Gaza.

Later in his statement, he says UNB values and upholds freedom of expression and free speech but adds there are limits.

"Expressing hate speech is not protected in Canada. Disrupting the safety and normal operations of the university, or the construction of unauthorized structures, do not fall under the purview of free expression."

Mazerolle later goes on to say that "violence will not be tolerated at our university."

UNB classics professor Matthew Sears says many faculty and staff at UNB are disappointed by what he calls a "heavy-handed" approach by UNB administrators toward the protests in Saint John, as well as Mazerolle's statement, which Sears says implies those who've been demonstratingare violent.

"We were quite upset that this language, coming out of nowhere, responding to no actual threats or incidents of violence or hate speech, was thrown in there to be inflammatory, to stack the rhetorical deck against those standing in solidarity with Palestinians," Sears said in an interview.

"It criminalizes Palestinian solidarity and it sets up those engaged in these activities as perhaps contemplating or threatening violence or hate speech or disrupting the university's operations, and so, yeah, we were very taken aback by that [statement]."

Student-led protests have been held at university campuses across North America since the Israeli government began a military offensive in Gaza in response to an attack by Hamas militants.

The Israeli government says Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 during the attack from Gaza on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In response, the Israeli government launched an aerial bombing and ground offensive campaign, which the Gaza health ministry says has killed more than 37,000 people.

On campuses in the United States and Canada, students have gathered to call on their universities to sell off investments they hold in Israeli companies, particularly those that develop or produce arms and technology used by the Israel Defense Forces, in response to the high death toll in Gaza.

Some protests on Canadian campuses have turned into round-the-clock encampments, prompting universities to seek legal action to forcibly remove them.

At UNB, protesters have gathered daily at the Saint John campus, and weekly at the Fredericton campus.

Professor issued trespass notice

Jeff Houlahan, chair of the department of biological sciences at UNB's Saint John campus, said he started demonstrating alongside students on May 6.

He said every day, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., he'd set up a sign saying "Free Gaza," and sit in the campus's quad, engaging in debates and discussions with other students and faculty about the conflict.

"It's been extremely peaceful," he said of the demonstrations.

Houlahan said about two weeks into it, he decided to putup a camping tent to shield against the rain, prompting campus security to ask him to take it down, which he objected to.

He said he set the tent up at the beginning of each dayand broke it down and took it home in the afternoon.

On May 28, campus security approached him and a student protest organizer and informed them they were being issued a seven-day no-trespass order, Houlahan said. They were told thiscould result in their arrests if they came back on campus, he said.

Houlahan said he still returned the following day, again with his tent, and this time was approached by security guards and officers with the Saint John Police Force.

He said officers initially told him he'd be escorted off campus but after discussions with campus security, they left without arresting or fining him.

Saint John police Sgt. Matthew Weir confirmed officers responded to a call by campus security about a protester refusing to remove a tent. He said that when they learned the protest was peaceful, they left the scene.

Houlahan said he's since returned to the campus most days, with his tent, to demonstratebuthe's disappointed by UNB's threat to have him arrested and upset by Mazerolle's statement regarding the demonstrations.

"I was outraged by it because I felt like he knew that there had been no violence," Houlahan said. "He knew there had been no hate speech, but he could throw that out there as, you know, this complete distraction."

UNB supports peaceful protest, says president

CBC News asked UNB for an interview with Mazerolle but was told he was unavailable.

In an emailed statement, he said UNB supports peaceful protests on campus and also wants everyone in its community to feel safe and to respect its values, including academic freedom.

"Like many universities, we hear multiple perspectives from our community about this conflict," Mazerolle said.

"We remain firm in our commitment to be a place of reasoned debate where conflicting views can co-exist peacefully."

CBC News has seen the trespass notice issued against Houlahan, and it does not detail why it was issued.

When asked, UNB spokesperson Marcia Seitz-Ehler shared a copy of a May 13 letter by UNB security director Don Allen in anticipation of planned protests.

Seitz-Ehler said in an email that the letter was physically given to protesters on both campuses and included a list of 18 actions that are not allowed as part of protests, including the installation of "temporary or permanent structures of any kind, including tents or barricades."

Houlahan said his union, the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers, has filed a grievance against UNB over issuing the trespass notice, arguing UNB violated his right to academic freedom.

Brenda Morais, an executive assistant with the association, confirmed in an email to CBC News that it has filed a grievance on behalf of a member who was issued a trespass notice but said the union would not comment publicly on it.

Calls for divestment at UNB

Sears and Houlahan aren't the only faculty taking issue with Mazerolle's comments.

An open letter to Mazerolle and UNB board chair Tom Gribbons states UNB employees are "dismayed" by the content and tone of Mazerolle's statement, and the suggestionthat protesters have engaged in violence. The June 4 letter had been electronically signed by more than 120 faculty and staff as of Friday.

The letter also calls on the university to divest from Israeli companies, companies that do business with Israel, and any others that produce weapons used against Palestinian civilians.

Sears said at a university senate meeting in May, Mazerolle disclosed UNB's operating endowment had about $340,000 invested in Israeli companies, which accounted for 0.08 per cent of the total fund.

CBC News has not seen the minutes of the meeting, but Mazerolle's statement confirms less than 0.1 per cent of UNB's investment portfolio is in "Israeli companies."

While the amount is relatively miniscule, Sears said he believes selling the investments would serve to condemn the Israel Defense Forces'killing of civilians during the war in Gaza.

"I think the [New Brunswick] public has a very clear interest in its flagship university making a statement and taking a stand in what it is investing in," he said.

In his May 31 statement, Mazerolle said he's aware of calls for UNB to divest from Israeli companies and to publicly denounce Israel.

"UNB will not be complying with these demands," Mazerolle said.

"Two principles are being adhered to in relation to these matters — institutional autonomy and political neutrality."