July 10, 2024
On July 2, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s ruling on the encampment injunction empowered police to remove protestors associated with the People’s Circle for Palestine from the encampment at U of T campus. This encampment, which mobilized the community for 63 days, is part of a long history of organizing that has called on the U of T administration to act in response to Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. CUPE 3902 continues to support the demands of U of T Occupy for Palestine and sees the recent court ruling as an infringement on our right to peacefully protest—not just the ongoing genocide, but the right to protest more broadly.
In June, CUPE 3902’s membership reaffirmed their longstanding Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) mandate and endorsed the demands of U of T Occupy for Palestine, which asked U of T to: (1) divest from Israeli apartheid, (2) end partnerships with Israeli academic institutions that support the occupation, and (3) ensure ongoing financial transparency around its endowments, short-term working capital assets, and other financial holdings.
The day after the injunction ruling, CUPE 3902 members, along with other members of the U of T community, rallied in solidarity with the protestors, their demands, and their right to peacefully protest. We cannot — and will not — accept that U of T administration can dictate when and where we gather, protest, and picket. The fight for justice is part of a long and protracted struggle. The struggle for a free Palestine did not begin when the protesters established the People’s Circle at U of T, nor did it end with the camp’s dismantling. It began 76 years ago, and the struggle continues. Building on the encampment’s progress in on-campus mobilization, CUPE 3902’s BDS Committee continues as an organizing space to exert pressure on U of T, doing the necessary work to make U of T a place where we are all proud to work and study—where we know that our tuition and labour are not complicit in genocide.
In solidarity,
CUPE 3902 Executive Committee
CUPE 1281 (Staff at CUPE 3902)