May 6 2024

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) stands with students who are exercising their right to protest peacefully on Canadian campuses and around the world, along with the faculty and community members who have joined them. 

Just like student movements at many critical moments in history, students today — at institutions such as McGill University, University of Ottawa, Concordia University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, and Vancouver Island University — are speaking out against the continuing devastation, the refusal of an immediate ceasefire, and the denial of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

These students have mobilized in response to the shocking lack of global action to end the ongoing massacre and humanitarian crisis.

Our union defends their right to express their views and to protest peacefully. We urge university administrations and political leaders to abstain from using force or other repressive measures against the students.

Instead, university and political leaders should seek to engage with the protesters, and commit to starting much-needed conversations, and to dialogue at home and internationally, on the issues they have raised regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We are encouraged by the recent decision by a Superior Court in Quebec to deny McGill University’s request to force an end to the peaceful student protests. 

NUPGE continues to call for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages, as a step toward political solutions that will pave the way to security and peace in Gaza, Israel, and the surrounding region.