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UCalgary Community Letter of Solidarity With Student Protesters
UCalgary Community Letter of Solidarity With Student Protesters
We, the undersigned faculty, staff and community at the University of Calgary (UCalgary), are
writing to express our tremendous disappointment and horror with UCalgary’s response to the
student-led protest on campus held on May 9, 2024.
University Administration chose to deploy a militarized anti-riot unit of the Calgary Police Service
(CPS) which used brutal force against young students peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in
Gaza.
Our students were continually silenced and dismissed by UCalgary administration for seven
months. On May 9, students chose to join the global student movement protesting the genocide,
apartheid state governance, colonization, and total destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure including
the healthcare and academic institutions and capacities. Student protests demand transparency
and accountability from UCalgary regarding the institution's support for Israel-led genocide and
mass violence in Palestine, as well as the centering of human life and dignity, in alignment with
UCalgary’s stated Equity, Diversity and Inclusion goals.
We, the undersigned faculty, staff, and UCalgary community members, see the protest as “a
public-facing global education project”, and the University administration’s actions as a betrayal
of the values of higher education as spaces for critical thinking, academic freedom, and
commitment to equity, justice, and social transformation.
We join the larger Alberta Community to call on you, as the President and Vice-Chancellor, to
provide a public explanation for these actions and to outline the steps UCalgary will take to
ensure that such a violent response to peaceful protests does not recur. We demand that the
University of Calgary's Administration pursue the following actions:
Our universities must be spaces where we engage in critical dialogue openly, and where the
voices of all students, educators, and communities, particularly those whose voices have been
systematically silenced, are heard and valued. We ask the University of Calgary administration
to take responsibility for their action and lead by example.
In solidarity,