In re­cent times, stu­dents across Canada have risen in sol­i­dar­ity with the peo­ple of Gaza, vo­cal­iz­ing their dis­sent against the si­lence of their ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions amidst the es­ca­lat­ing hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis. The Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, rec­og­nized as one of Canada’s top five uni­ver­si­ties, which was at the fore­front of rec­og­niz­ing and sup­port­ing Ukraine in its war against Rus­sia, wit­nessed a stir­ring protest last week. The demon­stra­tion was no­table for its di­ver­sity, with many non-Arab and non-Mus­lim stu­dents join­ing in the march for Gaza. There was a sprin­kling of Sikh stu­dents too. The col­lec­tive de­mand was for Is­rael to “Cease Fire Now” and for the Cana­dian gov­ern­ment to with­draw its sup­port for what the stu­dents la­beled as Is­rael’s acts of ag­gres­sion. WSN Canada Desk re­ports.

Young stu­dents, a mo­saic of dif­fer­ent eth­nic­i­ties, uni­fied by a com­mon cause, par­tic­i­pated in a stu­dent walk­out, echoed the sen­ti­ments of a Pales­tin­ian stu­dent whose fam­ily home in Gaza had been tar­geted mul­ti­ple times over the years. This stu­dent, sym­bol­i­cally es­chew­ing a mask, de­clared his face a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of those who could not con­ceal their iden­ti­ties, those who were vic­tims be­cause of their iden­ti­ties. His speech was a poignant re­minder of the grave ex­is­ten­tial threat faced by en­tire blood­lines in Gaza.

Among the aca­d­e­mic voices in the crowd was Pro­fes­sor Ghada Ageel from the Uni­ver­sity of Al­ber­ta’s Po­lit­i­cal Sci­ence de­part­ment. Hav­ing re­cently chron­i­cled the loss of 36 fam­ily mem­bers in Gaza in The Guardian, her pres­ence un­der­scored the stark re­al­ity of the sit­u­a­tion. A Sikh stu­dent who stud­ied un­der her told WSN, “I do not have the courage to see her. Such a nice teacher, and such a great hu­man be­ing. What a gi­gan­tic tragedy to lose 36 fam­ily mem­bers in one go. May God be with her.”

The peace­ful rally am­pli­fied the ur­gent calls from the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity for an im­me­di­ate cease­fire in Gaza. As ar­tic­u­lated in the ral­ly­ing cry by Chantelle Chornohus from the De­part­ment of Wom­en’s and Gen­der Stud­ies, “This walk­out is to sup­port the call for an im­me­di­ate cease­fire and put pres­sure on our ad­min­is­tra­tion and gov­ern­ment to sup­port their con­stituents by echo­ing this call on a larger scale.”

This event stands not only as a demon­stra­tion for peace but also as a tes­ta­ment to the stu­dents’ re­solve to in­flu­ence pol­icy and in­cite ac­tion against the back­drop of a hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis with no end in sight.

This demon­stra­tion by the stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta, chal­leng­ing both their uni­ver­si­ty’s and the Cana­dian gov­ern­men­t’s stance on Gaza, is a clear con­dem­na­tion of the sup­port that Canada has ex­tended to Is­rael. The stu­dents’ de­fi­ant and forth­right stand against the on­go­ing at­tacks on Gaza’s chil­dren, women, and civil­ians rep­re­sents a no­table shift in the di­a­logue around the cri­sis, one that they hope will lead to sub­stan­tive change.

Sig­nif­i­cantly, the in­dige­nous stu­dent com­mu­nity also lent their voices to the cause. They drew par­al­lels be­tween the colo­nial his­tory of their land and the plight of the Pales­tini­ans, us­ing the slo­gan “Treaty 6 to Pales­tine, oc­cu­pa­tion is a crime.” The sin­cer­ity of the land ac­knowl­edg­ment given at the protest was high­lighted as be­ing more heart­felt than those heard within uni­ver­sity halls, em­pha­siz­ing a con­nec­tion be­tween the in­dige­nous strug­gles in Canada and the Pales­tin­ian fight for their home­land.

The stu­dent body’s ap­peal was clear: they urged the Uni­ver­sity and the Stu­dents’ Union to pub­licly en­dorse the ‘Cease Fire’ ini­tia­tive. They called upon the in­sti­tu­tion to ex­tend the same sup­port to Pales­tin­ian stu­dents as it had to Ukrain­ian stu­dents, point­ing to a dis­crep­ancy in aid that con­tra­dicted the uni­ver­si­ty’s pro­fessed val­ues of equal­ity and so­cial change.

The Sikh com­mu­ni­ty’s in­volve­ment, al­beit in small mea­sure, in the protest was def­i­nitely wel­come.

The Sikh com­mu­ni­ty’s in­volve­ment, al­beit in small mea­sure, in the protest is a tes­ta­ment to their long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to hu­man rights. His­tor­i­cally, Sikhism has ad­vo­cated for jus­tice and com­pas­sion, and their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the protests re­flects these core val­ues. Their pres­ence, along­side other com­mu­ni­ties, sent a pow­er­ful mes­sage of in­ter­faith sol­i­dar­ity and the uni­ver­sal pur­suit of hu­man­i­tar­ian jus­tice.

Tak­ing a bold ap­proach, the stu­dents called for a boy­cott of multi­na­tional cor­po­ra­tions like Star­bucks, Dis­ney, and Mc­Don­ald’s, cor­re­lat­ing their con­sump­tion to the in­di­rect sup­port of the vi­o­lence in Gaza.

Every­one joined in a col­lec­tive ‘Dua’ (prayer) for Pales­tine, a spir­i­tual mo­ment that en­cap­su­lated the shared hope for peace and the end of suf­fer­ing in Gaza.

The Uni­ver­sity of Al­ber­ta’s com­mend­able com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing Ukrain­ian stu­dents amidst the har­row­ing Russ­ian in­va­sion stands in stark con­trast to the si­lence re­gard­ing the on­go­ing cri­sis in Gaza.

The Uni­ver­sity of Al­ber­ta’s com­mend­able com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing Ukrain­ian stu­dents amidst the har­row­ing Russ­ian in­va­sion stands in stark con­trast to the si­lence re­gard­ing the on­go­ing cri­sis in Gaza. While Pres­i­dent Bill Flana­gan has proac­tively an­nounced up to a mil­lion dol­lars in aid, high­light­ing the uni­ver­si­ty’s his­tor­i­cal ties with the Ukrain­ian com­mu­nity and the pres­ence of the Cana­dian In­sti­tute for Ukrain­ian Stud­ies, a sim­i­lar sense of ur­gency is con­spic­u­ous by its ab­sence.

This di­chotomy pre­sents an irony not lost on those who ob­serve the sit­u­a­tion. On one hand, the in­sti­tu­tion is ex­tend­ing con­sid­er­able re­sources to ex­pe­dite ap­pli­ca­tions and cover liv­ing costs for Ukrain­ian stu­dents, a ges­ture that em­bod­ies the val­ues of sup­port and global cit­i­zen­ship. Yet, on the other hand, the si­lence on Gaza—where the term ‘geno­cide’ has been in­voked by its stu­dent body—calls into ques­tion the con­sis­tency of such val­ues when ap­plied to dif­fer­ent re­gions un­der­go­ing con­flict.

The plight of Pales­tin­ian stu­dents and the broader com­mu­nity in Gaza seems to war­rant a com­pa­ra­ble level of at­ten­tion and sup­port, yet this has not been forth­com­ing. The uni­ver­si­ty’s de­ci­sive ac­tion for Ukrain­ian stu­dents serves as a prece­dent for the kind of sol­i­dar­ity and as­sis­tance that could be of­fered to other com­mu­ni­ties in dis­tress. The dis­par­ity in re­sponse thus prompts a re­flec­tion on the prin­ci­ples of equal­ity and im­par­tial sup­port in times of cri­sis, and on how an aca­d­e­mic in­sti­tu­tion can align its ac­tions with its stated com­mit­ment to global hu­man­i­tar­ian ef­forts.