(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Johan Boyden

In our last issue, People's Voice reported on recent student protests at the University of Toronto. Since then, the activists who mobilized against fee increases have been subjected to a campaign of intimidation by U of T Administration and Toronto Police. Fourteen students and organizers have been charged with alleged criminal offences, and face strict bail conditions prohibiting them from associating with one another outside of court and class. PV spoke with Deena Dadachanji, who helped organize a solidarity meeting of several hundred students and supporters at the Steelworkers Hall in Toronto.

PV: What do you think is going on here?

Deena Dadachanji: The main issue is academic freedom. The fact that the students are even facing charges shows the response of the university to dissent against its policies of tuition fee increases across the board. Rising tuition is making education highly inaccessible. More and more, poor, immigrant, working class, and a whole range of people just can't afford education any more.

What charges and restrictions do the activists face?

     There is a range. Fourteen students are involved, with charges from forcible confinement to mischief. There is also a fourth change for some others, threatening police. They are not allowed to protest on campus, many people have also been banned from the U of T. Staff members are confined to their space of their work. They can't speak to colleagues. The students are only allowed on campus to go to class. They can't even go to library, for example. There are also non-association charges clearly aimed at breaking down mobilization and hindering organizing on campus.

     As far as we are concerned, these changes are all false. They are intimidation tactics from the University of Toronto against dissent on campus. The people who have been arrested are from key student groups, including OPIRG, University of Toronto Students Union, CUPE, and a range of other leaders, staff, students. Some are also first years.

What are the implications for their academic careers?

     Well, we are hoping to keep those minimal! But U of T wants to try everything they can, including expulsion. The students are also charged against the university's Student Code of Conduct. These are additional rules that the U of T has set up, a non-academic code of contact that the university has written relatively recently. The Student Code of Conduct has never been used before in this way. In fact, the U of T has seen many actions in the President's office, including sit-ins where protestors stayed much longer.
How are the students reacting?

     Well, the people who have been charged are definitely worried, but they know that they are fighting the right struggle, and that there is huge support, for which are truly thankful... The University of Toronto Student's Union president, the Canadian Federation of Students, and faculty are all onboard, not just at U of T but also at York University. There have also been letters from international organizations - even a student union in Austria! And there has also been a lot of community support, from labour, such as CUPE Ontario. What this really shows is that the administration's actions have just worked to mobilize more people.

Lets talk about the broader implications of these arrests.

     We have to keep in mind the larger atmosphere of corporatization on campus. The University has a plan - it is online - for the future of U of T. The campus will become much more corporatized, including increased funding, which has an effect on the academic freedom of instructors. Take the case of Dr. Nancy Olivieri [who was sacked and sued over five years, after publicly criticizing a pharmaceutical company funding research on campus, then exonerated both as a physician and a researcher]. I think we have to be very wary of this agenda. It is an agenda much larger than (President) Naylor, and involves the corporate power behind the President. It also aims to deregulate tuition fees.

What is next?

     We encourage everyone to visit our website, http://www.fightfees.ca, send letters to the president. We want to build a huge rally for June 3, and are calling for support.