Federal and provincial NDP politicians as well as the Liberal-appointed Islamophobia representative are unhappy with McMaster University for allegedly blacklisting several students who participated in anti-Israel encampments.
Ontario MPP Sarah Jama and MP Matthew Green, who both represent Hamilton ridings, have joined calls for McMaster to reverse a ban on three students who hold leadership roles in the public worker union CUPE 3906.
The university has reportedly declared the students “persona non grata,” though True North was unable to confirm the reasons for the designation with McMaster University. The school’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities states that individuals designated as “persona non grata” are “denied the privilege” of entering specific areas in the university.
“If PNG individuals are found or seen in the area they are denied, then they will be subject to a charge by Security Services under the Trespass to Property Act,” the policy states.
In a joint letter shared on X by Jama, the two NDP representatives for Hamilton accused the university of breaking agreements with protesters to not retaliate against them for their activism.
“This arbitrary banning of these CUPE members and students, after the University negotiated in good faith with the students to try and get the encampment to shut down, is counter to the spirit of the negotiated settlement that took place between the parties,” the letter said. “As alumni of McMaster University, we stand in support of those who have received “persona non grata” statuses and will not be accepting invitations from the University to return back to the campus until they have this status withdrawn.”
Jama and Green attended the protest encampment in May. In the letter, they restated their pride in attending the anti-Israel encampment.
“Recently, we both proudly attended the student encampment at McMaster in solidarity protesting the ongoing genocide being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the call from students to end the University’s indirect complicity in it,” the letter said.
During Jama and Greens’ visit to the protest encampment at McMaster University, Jama called to “globalize the intifada.” In the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the last intifada was known as the second intifada and was characterized by suicide bombings, stone throwing and rocket attacks in civilian areas in Israel from 2000-2005.
Canada’s special representative on combatting Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, also wrote a letter to the university emphasizing a need to act sensitively as many students are deeply affected by the Israel-Hamas war unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank.
Elghawaby said the university administrators have “struggled to respond” to the needs of students, staff and faculty as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
“There is also little doubt in our minds that in the midst of these challenging moments, many universities did not get it right when it came to protecting the fundamental right of peaceful protest on campus,” Elghawaby said in a letter
Elghawaby accused the university of not respecting the protester’s right to freedom of expression.
“Throughout various meetings and roundtables held across Canada with Canadian Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students, staff, and faculty, it has become abundantly clear that far too many of them have faced negative consequences for their advocacy,” she said.
She said Arab and Muslim Canadians have faced undue and “deliberate” silencing, harassment, threats and violence on campuses across the country due to their anti-Israel advocacy.
“College and university campuses must remain spaces where dialogue is encouraged; where everyone feels safe to express their views on important issues and global events,” she said in the letter. “No one should be personally targeted because of their opinions, their faith or their origin. No one should be subject to verbal attack or prevented from freely moving about their campus.”
While acknowledging hate, violence and other “unacceptable forms of speech or action” as an exception, she said freedom of expression on university campuses must be protected.
Elghawaby said all proposed disciplinary actions must be fully open and transparent to the public in light of the public interest around the protests. She also called for an increase in representation of Muslim, Palestinian and Arab faculty members and an increase in resources dedicated to fighting “anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.”
McMaster University did not respond to True North’s requests for comment.