I wrote on Friday about being appalled by the CUPE proposed resolution that Israeli academics should be banned from Canadian universities. Several of my friends circulated that posting to many people, and there were some interesting comments on the posting.
- In the comments to the posting, Nick Rowe wondered how effective the CUPE resolution would be if many academics at Canadian universities do as I have done and seek affiliation with universities in Israel. These affiliations are, for the most part, comparatively easy to arrange.
- A former Dean of Social Sciences has written to me, "...there is no way university faculties
in Ontario would pass anything even resembling such a motion. And even if they did, you would have a lot of company
through the barricades!"
I hope he is right. But given last year's outrage by some of my colleagues when our university president accepted an honour from the JNF, I'm not sure how much company there would be going through the barricades. Also, I worry about what position some of our faculty unions might take on any boycott resolution. - The current president of The University of Western Ontario wrote, to me, "... CUPE does not set policy at our University. Israeli academics will continue to be welcome at Western."
Despite assurances that "CUPE does not set policy at our University...", there is good reason for concern.
First, even if CUPE does not set policy, it can make life difficult for the university.
Second, the resolution by CUPE, if passed, would further encourage those anti-western and anti-Israeli colleagues, several of whom are active in faculty unions throughout Ontario, to take up their cause. As I have written before, this cause is both anti-Semitic (how many scholars from other countries with egregious human rights violations have been boycotted by Ontario universities?) and antithetical to to academic freedom.