Nick Dyer-Witheford, acting dean of the faculty of information and media studies, contacted the university to request a review into whether campus police turfed protesters or asked them to move their demonstration to another area of campus.
An official from the university who spoke with campus police maintains the group was merely asked to relocate.
“Even if they were asked to relocate I think there’s some questions remaining about the justification for that,” said Dyer-Witheford, who plans to write a formal letter to administration this week.
It all started last Tuesday when a small group of sign-carrying protesters approached first-year students participating in Orientation Week activities near University College. The demonstrators handed out pamphlets about rising tuition fees and talked to students about the issue.
Police arrived and told the protesters to leave campus, said protester Jordan Coop, a fifth-year student.
Though police allowed demonstrators to get their bikes, the message was clear, Coop said. “The consensus among us was that they wished for us to leave campus.”
London activist Mike Roy, a first-year student, said: “What I was told is that we have to leave.”
Campus police told Gitta Kulczycki, vice-president of resources and operations at Western, the protesters were never told to leave campus.
“They were asked to relocate,” said Kulczycki. “We encourage our students to use our campus in speaking out on subjects of importance to them. In this instance a judgment call was made that the official O-week was not the appropriate place.”
For Dyer-Witheford, asking the students to move to another area is problematic.
“That becomes a way of actively diminishing public dialogue and interactions about issues like these,” he said.
Original Article
Source: lfpress.com
Author: Dale Carruthers
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