VIU student petitions BC Supreme Court for judicial review of suspension (cheknews.ca)

submitted 3 days ago by Sunshine@piefed.social to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] OliveMoon@lemmy.ca -3 points 3 days ago

OK, while I support Sara Kishawi’s support of Palistine, I do not support her tactics. This is Canada. We have rules to which you need to adhere. If you don’t want to follow Canada’s rules, oh well.

One incident involved VIU staff wanting to close a rooftop patio on campus. Staff say Kishawi refused to leave and refused to provide her ID.

In the second incident, the university learned Kishawi had accessed the rooftop of a university building, endangering her own safety.

In the third, she was one of more than a dozen students involved in a sit-in, occupying building 255, and disrupting the learning environment. Kishawi recorded the incident.

And the fourth, she entered a restricted area of the library that was left open and wrote a slogan on a wall with a marker and put up some signs, one referencing a worker as racist.

[-] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

So this whole case is actually exactly about those Canadian laws, as defined in the Charter of Rights as the right to freedom speech and the right to freedom of assembly. The British Columbia Civil Liberties association is arguing that Charter rights should not be infringed upon just because they were expressed on a college campus (private property).

The BCCLA's legal argument here

Easier to read article here

Another explanation from VIU faculty themselves : "These suspensions violate President Saucier’s public statement from 31 May 2024: “Let me state that clearly: members of our community will not be punished for participating in the encampment.”"

If we were to say that freedom of speech is not allowed just because you're on private property, we're setting a very dangerous precedent. I do think that the freedom of assembly one is a bit harder to argue because of trespassing laws, but they are then policing why students assemble on the campus (where they normally would've been allowed to be), which crosses back onto freedom of speech.