Two Toronto police officers entered a small classroom at York University on Feb. 2 just as Muhannad Ayyash was preparing to give a lecture on the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

The officers told us the university had called the police and asked them to check out a “major event” and “a possible protest” happening on campus.

I invited them to stay for the lecture and they just smiled. After a few short minutes, they left.

The episode was not an isolated event, but rather a clear manifestation of a structure of colonialism and racism that permeates Canadian post-secondary institutions.

In so far as institutional anti-Palestinian racism is concerned, York University itself has a long and troubling history.