Undergraduates at top Montreal university reject BDS
After Canadian parliament passes motion rejecting BDS, McGill University follows suit
Undergraduate students at Montreal’s anglophone McGill University rejected a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion against Israel, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Sunday, after the boycott was endorsed by a student body at the university.
“The BDS movement, which among other things calls for universities to cut ties with Israeli universities, flies in the face of the tolerance and respect we cherish as values fundamental to a university,” the prestigious university's vice chancellor, Suzanne Fortier, said in a statement.
“It proposed actions that are contrary to the principles of academic freedom, equity, inclusiveness, and the exchange of views and ideas in responsible open discourse.”
Last week, just as an endorsement of the anti-Israeli boycott was backed by a student union at McGill, a motion formally condemning the BDS movement passed in the Canadian Parliament by a majority of 229 to 51.
The measure was supported by both the Conservatives as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals party.
Trudeau has, in the past, stated that “The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses.”