Hi all,
First, thank everyone so much for taking the time to read and respond to my post. I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have approached me at school and on-line with their support.
You are all wonderful.
I received a letter from the university today saying:
Dear Justine,
Thank you for meeting with me to discuss the incident that took place on March 8, 2012 on the SUB South Plaza. In the meeting we discussed the following:
With one exception, you agreed with the report from Campus Security that stated that you disrobed and sat on a chair on the SUB South Plaza. I have amended the report to reflect that you were not a member of Students for Reproductive Rights.
You denied any allegation that you disrupted the Genocide Awareness Project display, stating that you did not sit directly in front of the display and did not try to obstruct access to the display.
I requested that in the future you comply with reasonable requests made by Campus Security.
As permitted under section 6.2 of the Student Code of Conduct, I have decided not to pursue these allegations and I have therefore discontinued further action.
As discussed, a record of these allegations and this letter will be retained on file. If you wish to meet to discuss this further, please contact me at chad.hyson@ubc.ca. Otherwise, you do not need to take any further steps with regard to this matter.
So there you go. Case closed.
But as I said in my original post, this really isn't about my case in particular, but more about how the university deals with peaceful and legitimate protest.
I know that the passionate and articulate letters that so many of you wrote have given the university adminstration pause to think, and so on behalf of the next person who is brave enough to protest in an original and provocative way, I say thank you.
I will be back with more later, but right now I really have to work on some term papers.
Peace,
Justine
Dear Justine,
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that you are as articulate as you are idealistic.
I am also personally grateful to you for having taken this much time from your studies, which are the reason you were at UBC in the first place, and for having risked so much.
However, as far as I am concerned, this case is far from closed.
My own personal experience is of the Holocaust, where the stated ideology and strategy were to eradicate the Jews entirely. Family trees were scrutinized to determine whether a person had any Jewish blood at all, so that the earth could be wiped clean of it and the purity of the human race redeemed. Unlike GAP, I will not go into graphic details of the practices. My family were stripped of their assets and killed, and I do not know many Jews this didn't happen to.
As a Jew and as a woman, I am outraged that UBC permits a group, regardless of its philosophy, to co-opt, trivialize and invalidate my humanity, my history and my governance over my own body. Abortion does not target every foetus in existence. GAP has a clever, "carefully crafted" campaign, to try and prove that it does.
You seemed to think that a Jew, a Cambodian or a Lakota would be able to speak out against it. But by allowing this campaign in its present form on its campus, and by the sanctions that WERE taken against you, UBC has effectively delegitimized that voice, so that ANYONE speaking out against it would be viewed as “disruptive”.
I would like to see UBC’s administration apologize to you, to the Jewish, Cambodian and Lakota peoples, and to anyone else whose suffering it allowed to be mocked on its campus, both by permitting the campaign and by de-legitimizing your protest.
You had some offers of legal advice. I would feel privileged to add my name to any legal action taken against UBC for this infringement on my rights as a Canadian citizen.
From my vantage point, as an old person, I think that UBC stands to gain a lot more from you, than you do from it.
P.S. Don't worry too much about the term papers. I promise you that the audience for your words is going to be greater than 5 professors. MUCH greater...:)
My profile didn't register. juliemahn@gmail.com
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