Office of Vice President, Students Bennett Centre Student Services, N303 99 Ian Macdonald Boulevard York UniversityKeele Campus

Toronto, Ontario M3J 1L1 vpstdnts@yorku.ca CC: SAIA-York August 27 2013 Dear Ms. Morrison, We, the Executive of the Graduate Students Union at the University of Toronto (UTGSU), representing more than 15,000 graduate students, are writing to you today to express our grave concern over the actions taken in April/May of this year to revoke the status of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) as an official campus group, and ban York University alumni Hammam Farah from your downtown campus. The act of muzzling groups because of their message is something that we at UTGSU find unacceptable as it goes against everything that institutions of higher learning should stand forfreedom of personal expression, freedom of academic expression, and freedom of association. We stand with SAIA York in their requests to be reinstated as an official campus group, for the trespass order against alumnus Hammam Farah to be revoked, and for York University to broadly uphold the values of freedom of speech. We understand that some of the policies and procedures in place at York University contribute to the silencing of certain topics that would otherwise be open for discussion and debate. Such policies, such as the Senate Policy on Disruptive and/or Harassing Behaviour in Academic Situations and the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities contain no possibilities of providing for peaceful protests of a disruptive nature. While we cannot comment directly upon the policies of another institution with the same depth as others, we feel that such policies are part of a wider trend to repress, intentionally or otherwise, peaceful dissent. When topics like that of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel are brought into institutions of higher learning, they are likely to generate high emotions which can lead to some disruptions during peaceful protests. Disruptions are different than violence and should be handled through democratic means of discussion and debate as befits a University rather than through punishment and silencing. Furthermore, topics such as the ones that SAIA York brings to the table should be openly discussed and debated. We agree with the Canadian Civil Liberties Associations message to you, sent in a letter dated January 10, 2013: York University is a well-respected institution of higher learning and, as such, is

well placed to encourage critical thinking and questioning, even when this takes a form that may result in some level of inconvenience or interference with the everyday workings of the University. Events that are simply noisy, disruptive or cause some inconvenience are often still peaceful and, in many cases, such disruption is a core component of the nature of the protest or the message being conveyed. We see your actions listed above as attempts to intimidate student activists in SAIA and other campus clubs to stick to uncontroversial messages. As controversy often precedes any great and necessary change, we strongly oppose your actions and urge you to work with students at your campuses to make changes to your policies to reflect such principles as we have described throughout this letter. York University should be a safe space for all ideas to be discussed and debated, as long as these ideas do not use hate speech or incite violence. Whether or not University Administrators or other students agree with SAIA York should not be a factor in such considerations. Rather, we would hope that issues such as this are treated similarly to those raised during the South African Anti-Apartheid movement, which was vigorously and freely debated across university campuses in North America. Ultimately, this resulted in many universities standing on the right side of history and choosing to divest from the apartheid regime in South Africa, and, as then, such lively debate and dissent should again be allowed to occur openly. In closing, we once again urge you and the whole of York University to stand for freedom of expression, freedom of association, and academic freedom.

Sincerely,

Susanne Waldorf, Civics and Environment Commissioner, on the behalf of The Executive of The University of Torontos Graduate Students Union