When the University of Toronto announced it would close its downtown campus for the week leading up the G20 Summit, it sparked discussion about the University's role in the broader global security agenda. The University community -- student groups, labour unions, individual academics and members of the general public -- condemned the closure and requested that the decision be rescinded in an open letter, noting that the action was reactionary, displayed a negative portrayal of demonstrators, and violated the principles of academic freedom. The signatories have yet to receive a formal response. The G20 closure appears to be yet another step away from democracy and a few steps closer to a business-led agenda subject to further negotiations at the G8 and G20 summits.
So for a few days, classes at U of T are postponed or cancelled. Campus buildings and libraries will be locked up. Students have to move out of their residences, events -- from weddings, to plays, to conferences -- have been cancelled. Core student services, including health care for international students, psychiatric services, career centre, accessibility services, the student food bank, discounted metropasses, and other general support services will be disrupted from the closure.
While the original explanation was that the campus closure was to protect students, staff and faculty from "untoward incidents" of "violence, tear gas, arrests, disruption, and damage to buildings," the discrepancies unfolding in the details of the actual operations during the closure are giving that narrative less traction. First, not all student residents are being removed from campus. While New College undergraduate residents are being forced to move out, one block away the Grad House residents will stay. New College residence will be changing the locks immediately before and after the closure period. Many of the undergraduate students are being relocated to 89 Chestnut, which is in reality, closer to the fenced area in downtown Toronto than their current residences. While food services across campus will be closed, the Faculty Club will continue operating to feed "ancillary staff" throughout the closure. Graduate students have been provided specific instructions on access to their labs and a University spokesperson confirmed that the G8 Research Group at the Munk School of Global Affairs will remain open throughout the summits.
These discrepancies have led many in the campus community to question what is really happening at U of T and to its purpose. And it has led to further speculation on whether students are being shut out to accommodate additional security forces for the G20 at University of Toronto. When asked, University administration representatives would not confirm or deny whether additional security was being housed in the residences.
The fear-mongering regarding the violence of protesters is far from credible. During previous G8 meetings held in Alberta in 2002 and University of Calgary theatres were booked for community events related to activism around the G8 summit. In 2001, when convergences met in Quebec City to demonstrate the Free Trade Areas of the Americas, thousands were accommodated on gym floors and residences at Laval University. And a University representative agreed with students today that the violence in Pittsburgh was instigated by police.
The University's collaboration and consultation with government on security activities in lieu of direct and democratic consultation with the University community is disconcerting at best. Instead of providing a space for to foster the University's "duty above all" to the "human right to radical, critical teaching and research," there appears to be other interests at play.
In the wake of the largest single private endowment to a Canadian university for the Munk School for Global Affairs -- focusing on global securities -- while critical liberal arts programs at U of T suffer, students and academic staff are seeing an unprecedented clampdown on their right to free and critical enquiry -- most recently illustrated by the campus closure. University of Ottawa professor Joel Westheimer recently argued "the academy's shift towards a business model of education delivery impedes our collective ability to preserve and promote a democratic way of life". And he's not the only one concerned about the erosion of democracy. University of Chicago Law Professor Martha Nussbaum argues in her new book that cutting our liberal arts programs in universities and focusing on the university as a space for economic growth is leading to an undereducated population and hindering democratic growth.
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Aside from closing down on spaces for free and critical debate during the G20, the transformation on campus towards private endowment driven research is reaching new levels. And this wouldn't the first time that the University of Toronto's attempted curtail political discussion on campus has been unveiled. Last year, it was revealed in FIPPA documents planned attempts by the University to avoid space bookings for a student-led 2008 Conference entitled "Standing Against Apartheid."
Recent reporting revealed how University of Ottawa was playing a role in spying on academics and attempting to prevent the local student federation's space bookings to host a renowned Burmese activist in what appears to be another story of pressure to protect corporate sponsors from potential criticism on campus. And now, at the University of Toronto, we are seeing an increasing security presence. Police have been hanging around during student-led discussions and events addressing the G20, including some plain clothes individuals carefully observing public discussions.
The political control of campuses continues to deepen as ongoing examples of interference are unveiled -- such as the federal Minister of Science and Technology's pressures to SSHRC to withdraw funding from an York University Law Conference on Isreal/Palestine and Conservative Party members' interference in students' unions elections.
The University of Toronto's Purpose states: "Is this human right to radical, critical teaching and research with which the University has a duty above all to be concerned; for there is no one else, no other institution and no other office, in our modern liberal democracy, which is the custodian of this most precious and vulnerable right of the liberated human spirit." It will be important to continue to examine the consequences of this campus closure, and other attempts to clamp down on free and critical inquiry in the context our public universities' mandates.
Angela Regnier is Executive Director of the U of T Student's Union.
What always happens when a dictator tries to take over? Where do they start? With the press and with the schools, generally:
"Apart from the policy of crushing the potential opponents of their regime, the Nazi Government took active steps to increase its power over the German population. In the field of education, everything was done to ensure that the youth of Germany was brought up in the atmosphere of National Socialism and accepted National Socialist teachings. As early as the 7th April, 1933, the law reorganising the Civil Service had made it possible for the Nazi Government to remove all " Subversive and unreliable teachers ", and this was followed by numerous other measures to make sure that the schools were staffed by teachers who could be trusted to teach their pupils the full meaning of National Socialist creed.
Apart from the influence of National Socialist teaching in the schools, the Hitler Youth Organisation was also relied upon by the Nazi Leaders for obtaining fanatical support from the younger generation. The defendant von Schirach, who had been Reich Youth Leader of the NSDAP since 1931, was appointed Youth Leader of the German Reich in June, 1933. Soon all the youth organisations had been either dissolved or absorbed by the Hitler Youth, with the exception of the Catholic Youth. The Hitler Youth was organised on strict military lines, and as early as 1933 the Wehrmacht was cooperating in providing pre-military training for the Reich Youth.
The Nazi Government endeavoured to unite the nation in support of their policies through the extensive use of propaganda. A number of agencies were set up whose duty was to control and influence the press, radio, films, publishing firms, etc., in Germany, and to supervise entertainment and cultural and artistic activities. All these agencies came under Goebbels' Ministry of the People's Enlightenment and Propaganda, which together with a corresponding organisation in the NSDAP and the Reich Chamber of Culture, was ultimately responsible for exercising this supervision. . .
The great sci fi writer Harlan Ellison once wrote a short story about a future where universities are armed security camps; with perimeter fences, guard towers, monitors and cameras everywhere, and a brig. And the only thing they train for is "either the corporations or the armed services". Where a law had been passed that nothing could be discussed in class "that could be construed as terrorist or treasonable" on pain of immediate arrest.
Representatives of communities affected by Barrick Gold Corporation's mining operations worldwide were in Toronto to speak out during the company's annual shareholders' meeting. They criticized the company for devastating communities in Chile, Papua New Guinea, Balochistan and other areas through industrial pollution contaminating water and destroying agricultural land. Barrick President Peter Munk responded, saying the company provides "human dignity. We provide an opportunity for these people to earn their money, rather than hold out their hands and depend on charity.”
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/2396
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/home/company/barrick-gold
I think I remember watching TVO recently where Steve Pakin was falling over himself in discussion with Janice Stein about "MUNK Institute"
The Munk School for Global Affairs (formerly Munk Centre for International Studies) at Trinity College in the University of Toronto is a recognized leader in interdisciplinary academic research on global issues that integrates research with teaching and public education.
The Munk Centre for International Studies was opened in 2000. The Centre is named after Canadian business man and philanthropist Peter Munk, who made a $6.4 million donation to finance the construction.
It was renamed the Munk School for Global Affairs on April 13, 2010 when Peter Munk and his wife made a $35 million donation. According to the University of Toronto, the donation made by the Munks to create the Munk School allows the University to "expand U of T's research capacity, enable the hiring of new faculty and drive the expansion of new facilities". The Munk Centre now functions as a unit of the Munk School.
An aside:
Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, plans to construct and operate the mine, known as the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The Project area is located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 900 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo (in order to keep the open pit and mine workings dry during mining) and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal “public” land.
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/thanksgiving-cortez-way-us-ignores-western-shoshone-objections-barrick-gold-readies-itself-carve-mou
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/search/node/Barrick+Gold+Corp.+%2B+Canada
University of Toronto -- News@UofT: Social Sciences, Business & Law ...
John Manley to chair board at Munk Centre's School of International Studies ... Toronto awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree June 16 to John Christopher ...
www.news.utoronto.ca