Vice-President of Finance Commits to Recommending the University Divest.

UPDATE: On Mar. 11, the Aboriginal Students Association (ASA) presented a letter to the Central Students Association (CSA) Board of Directors at a board meeting. The letter criticized the way the CSA planned and executed the Mar. 4 Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Walkout/Divestment Protest with Fossil Free Guelph (FFG).

The CSA, as of writing, has not publicly commented on the matter, however, a motion has been made by the Board of Directors instructing the CSA “rectify the statement that was made to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Guelph Police Service, and the Canadian Armed Forces.”

On Mar. 4, University of Guelph students walked out of classes and gathered in a show of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en. They began protesting the RCMP, Guelph Police, and Canadian Armed Forces representatives on campus. The protest became a sit-in as demonstrators called for the university to fully divest from fossil fuels. University of Guelph Vice-President (Finance, Administration & Risk) Don O’Leary eventually committed to recommending full divestment to the Board of Governors.

“How do you spell racist? — R! C! M! P!” was one of the chants heard this afternoon, as protestors moved from Branion Plaza inside the University Centre, which was, at the time, full of students attending the Experience Guelph Job Fair.

Among those tabling at the fair were representatives from Guelph police, Armed Forces, and the RCMP.

Protestors carrying signs filled the space around the north elevators, spilling up the stairs towards the Brass Taps and the third floor.

Just before 2:30 p.m., Ben Stuart, an orange-vested protester, read a prepared letter addressed to the RCMP, police, and Armed Forces.

“We the students are officially serving the RCMP and all other institutions of colonial violence an injunction to remove themselves from the University of Guelph, University Centre space,” they said into a megaphone.

A full copy of this letter can be found below.

Some attendees told The Ontarion that the RCMP and provincial police forces no longer make them feel safe, and that they, and any institutions that support fossil fuel extraction and colonial violence, are complicit in genocide.

As the job fair was finishing, demonstrators moved upstairs, towards the fourth floor to address Don O’Leary.

The solidarity movement quickly transformed into a divestment protest, echoing similar protests from this and previous years, calling on the University of Guelph to immediately divest its four-million-dollar investment from Trans Canada Energy.

U of G constables arrived shortly before 3 p.m. around which time the demonstration became a sit-in on the fourth floor.

“I’m not mad,” an emotional protester said to O’Leary. “I’m just sad and scared for my future. Not all of us here are mad at you.”

“I am hopeful,” a psychology student told The Ontarion. “Hopeful, but still skeptical. I hope this is an important step. It felt powerful!”

O’Leary was surrounded by students who spoke and asked questions and continued to call on the university to take action.

“My hands are tied,” O’Leary told the group. “There is a governance process.”

“Seven-year long process?” replied Ben Stuart. “We’ve given you the case studies. We’ve given you tools. We’ve given you the tools. We’ve given you the pathways.”

Amidst the mounting pressure, O’Leary said “I’m making a recommendation,” and after calling on university staff present at the time to support him should he receive pushback from the Board, he committed to recommending that the board divest.

“I’m making a recommendation to the Board of Finances that the university fully divest from fossil fuels.”

“I am hopeful,” a psychology student told The Ontarion. “Hopeful, but still skeptical. I hope this is an important step. It felt powerful!”

Speaking with The Ontarion after the protestors dispersed, O’Leary, who has been with the University of Guelph since 2011, said, “I’ve changed over the years for sure … I will make the recommendation to the board … to fully divest from the endowment.”

The Board of Governors is scheduled to meet on Apr. 22, and organizers of today’s protest said that they have plans to assemble again.

Photos by Alex Vialette/The Ontarion

Don O’Leary, University of Guelph Vice-President, Finance, Administration & Risk . Photographed by Alex Vialette

Video by Patrick Sutherland

LETTER READ BY STUDENTS TO THE UNIVERSITY

[ON CSA LETTERHEAD]

To: RCMP, Guelph Police, and Canadian Armed Forces representatives on University of Guelph Campus,

We the students are officially serving the RCMP and all other institutions of colonial violence an injunction to remove themselves from the University of Guelph, University Centre space. As the University Centre is a student space, paid for by the student body, and meant to serve as a safe space for all students to work and live on campus.

The RCMP, Guelph Police, and Armed Forces are all complicit in different levels of colonial violence, oppression, and imperialism in the state of Canada and beyond. Their compliance in these systems remain unacceptable, and will not be supported by students. The RCMP is currently invading the sovereign Wet’suwet’en Nation — acting on behalf of TC Energy and their Coastal Gas Link Pipeline Project. The grotesque act of violence and oppression will never be accepted or supported by University of Guelph students, and we will not stand idly by as these institutions grimly and cowardly try to persuade students plagued by debt in their line of violent and damaging work.

Today, we the students stand up, and fight back. We claim the University Centre as a student space, and demand the RCMP and their whole row of gun slingers stand back from Wet’suwet’en and leave the University of Guelph effective immediately.

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