Occupy UWaterloo intensified their efforts as they protested during UW’s Pride month flag-raising ceremony on June 3. The group’s protesters interrupted the ceremony, causing UW President, Vivek Goel, to walk off stage as seen in a video posted on the @OccupyUWaterloo Instagram account. This precedes UW agreeing to disclose their investments but planning not to sever relationships with individual institutions, such as Technion, as per a memo sent by the university on June 15.
The complete demands of the encampment, run by Occupy UWaterloo, are for UW to disclose all investments and financial ties, divest from BDS-listed companies and defence contractors, and boycott ties to Israeli companies, goods, and universities both at UW and on UW premises.
“The university was pretty much straight up lying to the public and neglecting us,” said Nicholas Joseph, a media liaison for Occupy UWaterloo and a UW math student. “So far, they’ve had exactly one meeting with us.”
However, UW agreeing to one of their demands has sparked hope. “They’re going to disclose by the end of the year all of their investments and partnerships. We’re all hopeful so we’re pushing forward harder than ever and we are going to meet our demands of divest and boycott,” Joseph said.
The protest at UW’s Pride flag raising ceremony was just one of many protests by Occupy UWaterloo and was in support of queer and Palestinian people. “You can’t do liberal performative activism at one oppressed minority’s event while actively contributing to the complete demise of another,” Joseph said. “A lot of people are frustrated with that. So we decided that actually, no, Vivek Goel shouldn’t have a platform to speak. By we, I don’t mean we the encampment, I mean we, the students.”
This frustration is felt throughout the supporters of the encampment, queer and non-queer folk alike. “Genocide is not okay by any decent person’s standards,” Joseph said. “We don’t think that somebody [Vivek Goel] of this caliber who’s so directly implicit in the most documented genocide in history should have a right to speak at an event for the pride of an oppressed minority.”
Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) also weighed in on the protest at the Pride flag raising ceremony. “The protest at the flag-raising ceremony highlights the intersectionality that characterizes our campus community,” WUSA said. “WUSA supports the right of all students, faculty, and staff to freely and peacefully assemble, express their views, and make their voices heard.”
UW has not responded with specific comments about the protest, but they did send out a memo on June 15 with updates on the conversation with Occupy UWaterloo’s encampment. “We will not enter a conversation with members of the encampment about severing relationships with individual institutions, including Technion,” said UW. “The call to boycott, divest and sanction universities from one country is antithetical to our mission and doesn’t support our imperative to create a place where everyone who comes here feels like they belong.”
The university continues to encourage the encampment to end. “We have been clear that the encampment cannot go on indefinitely,” UW said. “We urge members to end their presence.”
However, Occupy UWaterloo is not backing down. “The people in Rafa are being bombed right now… we’re not taking the encampment down until our demands are met,” Joseph said. “Oppressed peoples in all contexts should stand together and none of us are free until all of us are free.”
Joseph encourages students to take a stand, support the encampment, and do their part to end this genocide as soon as possible. To learn more about the encampment, updates, and Occupy UWaterloo’s message, you can go to @OccupyUWaterloo on Instagram. To view memos and updates on this issue, go to https://uwaterloo.ca/employees/.
