"Language is powerful and the words we use convey various meanings and emotions. The students participating in the encampment at McGill University have clearly and consistently used the word ‘genocide’ in their demands for the university to divest from corporations that are supporting or benefitting from Israel’s genocide on the people of Gaza."
May 1, 2024
Joe Friesen, Staff Reporter
Frederik-Xavier Duhamel, Staff Reporter
Sandra Martin, Standards Editor
Dear Mr. Friesen, Mr. Duhamel and Ms. Martin,
I am writing on behalf of CJPME (www.cjpme.org) to express concern regarding a recent article entitled McGill University calls on police to break up prop-Palestinian encampment that was published on April 30, 2024.
Language is powerful and the words we use convey various meanings and emotions. The students participating in the encampment at McGill University have clearly and consistently used the word ‘genocide’ in their demands for the university to divest from corporations that are supporting or benefitting from Israel’s genocide on the people of Gaza.
In summarizing student demands, you write, “Student demands include that the schools divest from corporations tied to the Israeli war effort and cut ties with Israeli universities.” Your decision to use weak language rather than directly quote students is unfair. Demands made by SPHR McGill call explicitly for condemning the “ongoing genocide against Palestinian people.”
Your substitution of the words ‘war efforts’ and ‘attacks’ for ‘genocide’ in the article not only misrepresent but reduce the intensity behind the students’ motivation for participating in the protests. It is the ‘genocide’ being carried out by Israel that is motivating the students to risk arrest, suspension from school, summer employment, etc. not Israeli ‘war efforts’ and Israel’s ‘attacks’.
I ask you to consider making these minor edits so that the article reflects with accuracy and clarity the messaging and motivation of the protestors.
Sincerely,
Debbie Hubbard