Racism is masquerading as right-wing populism and free speech on Canadian campuses
"The alt right is really a big tent term – not all people who are involved are white, which makes it easier to defend when people involved in their activities are accused of encouraging white supremacy."
University campuses across Ontario and the country have experienced a surge in right wing activity and, at times, racist propaganda this past year. There’ve been so many digital and on-campus incidents of right-wing activity, most of them anti-Muslim, that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Incidents in Ontario include: “White Students Union” posters found last fall on the York, Ryerson, and the University of Toronto’s St. George campus; a number of “White Student Union” Facebook pages emerged at around the same time last year at U of T, Western and McMaster, in addition to the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria; students at the University of Western Ontario posed in front of a giant #WesternLivesMatter banner, and flyers decrying “anti-white racism” were found on the McMaster University campus in Hamilton. A study room in McMaster’s Innis Library was booked under the name “McMaster KKK meeting.”
Just last month, echoing the Trump campaign’s ubiquitous “Make America Great Again” motto, posters on Montreal’s McGill campus featured a “Make Canada Great Again” message with anti-Muslim and anti-gay graphics. A few months before that, posters reading “Fu*k Your Turban,” were found across the University of Alberta campus.
All of the incidents have been condemned by university administrators and campus student unions.
No comments:
Post a Comment