McGill threatens to sanction student union over pro-Palestine policy

Union president Darshan Daryanani says the administration's threat endangers democracy and the union's right to represent all students.

McGill University is threatening to sanction its student union, including by prohibiting it from using the McGill name, because the association championed a pro-Palestinian policy that the school and Jewish groups say is discriminatory.

The Palestine Solidarity Policy, adopted in a March student referendum with 71 per cent support, says the Students’ Society of McGill University shall join an international campaign to boycott all companies and institutions that are “complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians.” The policy also calls on the union to pressure the university to join the boycott.

In response, McGill’s administration served the student union with a notice of default, giving it a month to repeal the motion or have its agreement with the university terminated. The “Memorandum of Agreement” governs the relationship between McGill and the union by setting guidelines over financing and the use of school space and the university’s name.

“McGill University firmly denounces all forms of racism and discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia,” university spokesperson Cynthia Lee said in a statement about the results of the vote. She said the policy violates the university’s values of inclusion and it disrespects students’ religious and political beliefs.

Several Jewish advocacy groups are supporting the university’s position, saying the policy targets Jewish students on campus.

But union president Darshan Daryanani says the administration’s threat endangers democracy and the union’s right to represent all students. “We talk about academic freedom, but where is it in this?” Daryanani said in a recent interview.

About 2,294 students voted in favour of the policy — less than 10 per cent of McGill’s total undergraduate student body. The union said 931 students voted against the policy. The vote was held between March 15 and 21.

Daryanani said the union is not defending the policy itself but rather the right to student democracy.