UQAM professors push for renewed dialogue between admin, students
After weeks of protests inside and outside the University of Quebec at Montreal's buildings, the university's teaching staff is urging the administration to reopen the dialogue with protesting students.
Michèle Nevert, president of the Syndicat des professeurs et professeures de l'UQAM, said the teaching staff at the university have had one goal since the "civil crisis" erupted at the university: to reestablish calm and respect and do what is necessary to reopen communications between the two sides.
Over the past several days, tensions have escalated between the students and the school's administration as protests increased and police were brought in to remove students occupying a university building.
The school's staff have found themselves in the middle of the crisis — at one point physically separating security staff from protesters and appealing to the administration to call down what they described as heavy-handed measures to reestablish control.
"To get out of this crisis, they absolutely have to open the dialogue," Nevert said. "What we want is for the climate of study and work to be re-established. That's what we want."
On Tuesday, Montreal police moved in to remove protesters during a demonstration inside one of the university's buildings, arresting more than 20 people.
Nevert said professors created a human chain in an attempt to intervene and open negations between the demonstrators, security staff and the university administration. She said the protesters were instructed to remain passive and that was respected.
The university's rector wasn't available as the situation degraded, she said, so a request was made to the vice-rector to come down and meet with the students to open a common dialogue and to call off the security staff.
For more than two hours, the professors tried to convince the university's top administration to make a good faith gesture to relive the tension, she said.
"We left extremely disappointed by the refusal of the rector to intervene that night," she said.
Later that night, the situation devolved further and turned violent as police moved in to remove students occupying one of the campus buildings. The standoff left the J.-A.-DeSève building trashed and forced the university to close it down completely Wednesday for clean up.
The professors condemn all of the acts of violence and vandalism committed at the university, Nevert said.
She said the professors recognize there is a portion of the community that felt threatened and intimidated by masked protesters coming into classrooms to disrupt the work as a form of protest. That message has been delivered to the student associations.
She said she's also heard from students who say they have no choice but to wear a mask because of the court injunction obtained by the university barring anyone from blocking access to its buildings.
The union, a member of the CSN labour federation, represents 1140 professors at the university.
Calls for resignations
What began as a protest against government spending cuts has evolved and taken aim at the university's top brass after nine students were expelled for their roles in demonstrations and the university sought an injunction to take action against anyone blocking access to buildings.
On Tuesday, a group of staff and students who came forward to condemn the administrations' actions labelled the explusions "politically motivated."
On March 30, the school cancelled classes after protesters supporting the nine expelled students blocked the entrances to several buildings at the downtown campus. UQAM later obtained a court injunction barring anyone from blocking access to its buildings.
Earlier this week, Quebec's Education Minister François Blais said the government stands behind the university's rector.
Blais said the government would not support any action, even as part of the democratic process, that prevents students from attending classes.
