Students fume over university’s new campus protest policy

Student groups in London, Ontario, say Western University’s new protest policy restricts their rights and will have a chilling effect on campus free speech, writes Isha Bhargava for CBC News.

Groups now have to get authorisation from Western University’s director of campus safety and emergency services at least five business days before a planned demonstration, the new policy, which went into effect on 29 August, states. If approved, the director will provide “reasonable directions, including time, location and manner for the demonstration”, the policy said. Protests can only happen from 12 pm to 6 pm from Monday to Friday and individuals can’t advertise protests until they’re approved.

“This seems like a very blatant attempt from Western to depoliticise and really suppress student protests on campus,” said Eva Deligiannis, a second-year graduate student and member of the student-led climate crisis coalition at Western. “It’s clear to me that this is an indirect response to the [pro-Palestinian] encampments that we saw this summer and I think the university was intimidated by the growing collective strength of our voices and they were really trying to crackdown on that.”
Full report on the CBC News site