York University’s administration has once again blurred the boundary between stewardship and aggression, this time with its dubious handling of last Thursday’s demonstration, where five students were arrested, and one hospitalized after Toronto police allegedly beat him. This is the third time in less than a year that York has turned on its own students, making it one of the most bellicose administrations in recent memory, and one bent on making a travesty of post-secondary governance.
While police must be held independently accountable for their actions, York administrators should recognize that universities have an obligation to harbour the voice of dissent – irrespective of volume, irrespective of place. Letting loose the dogs on students violates this institution’s status as the aegis of free speech. More, it is a vulgar gesture that severely calls into question this administration’s ability to oversee a university.
After being scolded twice by the Ontario courts (first for expelling student Daniel Freeman-Maloy, and again when for wrongfully locking out the Glendon College Students’ Union), York’s administration should have learned its lesson.
Maybe it will now. But it might be the hard way.
