Custodial staff say they can’t remember ever getting such an order before, but the University of Toronto’s senior administrators are having them tear down hundreds of posters for being “possibly defamatory.”
The posters, put up by the student activist group AlwaysQuestion, accuse Peter Munk, chairman and founder of the Barrick Gold corporation, of “endless” atrocities, including funding militias, killing dissenters and labour leaders, instigating wars, and burying miners alive.
The posters also highlight Munk’s $6.2-million donation to U of T in 1999. The money helped establish Trinity College’s IR centre, which was then named after him. To date, Munk has donated $12.2 million to the Munk Centre, according to U of T’s official publication, the Bulletin.
According to AlwaysQuestion member Prambir Gill, the posters went up on Friday, Feb. 1 and had all been torn down by the following Monday.
When he saw custodians tearing down the posters, AlwaysQuestion co-founder and administrator Farshad Azadian went to Wayne Shaw, the manager of caretaking services. Shaw told him that the posters were “not authorized” and that administrators had ordered him to see they were taken down.
Apparently, administrators feared the posters could expose the school to a lawsuit by Munk or Barrick.
“Posters of that nature that may be defamatory, and the university might be on the hook,” said Ruta Pocius, U of T’s director of issues management and media relations. She said the university held legal consultations which found that the posters could be a liability, but has not—and does not intend to—investigate whether or not the posters constitute defamation under Canadian law.
Gill was clearly frustrated by the university’s handling of the matter. “They limit our right to free speech and censor our material, and they’ve given no clear reason for it,” he said.
“If you have any issues with the statements we made, they are all backed up by fact,” said Gill. AlwaysQuestion also runs campaigns addressing such campuscentric issues as the recently-announced (and angrily protested) 20 per cent hike in the New College residence fees.
The group has not been contacted in any way by the university, said Azadian. Since the first wave of tear-downs, the group has begun putting up a modified version of the poster, which now asks: “Why is U of T trying to censor this poster?” The new poster also bear an “Endorsed by ASSU” stamp—the Arts and Science Students Union assists AlwaysQuestion by providing photocopying service.
The first batch of 250 revised posters have already disappeared, with a second round stapled to bulletin boards across campus at press time, including at Sid Smith, Robarts and, pointedly, the Munk Centre. According to Pocius, the university will continue tearing down the posters.
Azadian noted that AlwaysQuestion put up several different posters, including some alleging Canadian imperialism and others condemning Israel, but only the Barrick posters were targeted.
