Master's student earns top marks for dissent
University of Toronto rabble-rouser graduates in a gown of protest - but
still faces criminal charges from a sit-in gone wrong
KATE HAMMER

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080621.UN...

Compiled by Editorial Research

June 21, 2008

Her pale face bobbing in a black sea of robes, Oriel Varga nearly
disappeared in the graduate procession. But as she moved toward the stage
at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall this month, campus police
had her in their sights.

A navy blue cape embroidered with white felt letters hung across her
narrow shoulders: "I spent a night in jail for U of T's crackdown on
student dissent," it read.

When she approached the stage to receive her master's degree in education,
a campus police officer blocked her way and asked her to leave. Ms. Varga
refused, and a standoff began; the diminutive student activist in her navy
cape versus the stalwart officer in his navy uniform.

But the student activist had not only brought her parents to her
convocation, she also brought her lawyer, human-rights activist Selwyn
Pieters, who intervened. Ms. Varga proceeded to the stage and received her
degree.

It was an appropriate closing scene to her long and eventful career at
the University of Toronto. She is among the 14 students, dubbed the U of T
Fightfees 14, facing criminal charges after a March 20 sit-in at the
university's administrative buildings turned violent. But whether the
students or the campus police perpetrated that violence remains a matter
of debate, and although the students face criminal charges, the young
university presidency of David Naylor is also on trial in the courts of
student opinion.

A lot is at stake: Ms. Varga and her fellow students face charges of
mischief, forcible confinement and forcible detainer that could land them
in jail. Mr. Naylor, appointed three years ago to head one of the largest
and most prestigious universities in North America, is accused by students
of being an enemy of free speech.

"While dissent is inevitable and indeed part of the fabric of every
university, this type of out-of-control protest that disrupts the work of
the institution and sees staff barricaded in an office simply can't be
allowed to occur," Mr. Naylor said in a telephone interview.

Standing outside Convocation Hall after the ceremony, a flash rainstorm
made Ms. Varga's hair hug her face like brown parentheses. She moved
through the rain-soaked crowd timidly, side-stepping stragglers rather
than pushing through them, weaving toward her parents, a diminutive pair
of Hungarian immigrants who beamed with pride.

As students stopped to read her cape and congratulate her, Ms. Varga
nodded and smiled, then continued toward mom and dad.

She has already spent a night in jail for rejecting the initial conditions
of her bail, which barred her from campus and from communicating with her
co-defendants, and she hopes not to spend another there.

"None of us expected anything like this," she said.

Her delicate build and shy disposition make her well cast in the role of
David, and she has battled an army of Goliaths. Throughout her
undergraduate years, Ms. Varga regularly slept in a park to protest
against homelessness. An enormous tableau she painted as a criticism of
the university's leadership hangs, after some controversy, on the top
floor of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Her next standoff will be over the events of a grey Thursday before the
Easter long weekend.

Student groups had organized a protest against residential-fee increases
at the university's New College and had occupied the university's offices
within the ivy-covered walls of Simcoe Hall.

According to university staff and other witnesses, protesters waved flags
and signs advertising diverse causes, from the New College residence-fee
rise, to the abolition of tuition fees, to Israeli apartheid, and demanded
a meeting with Mr. Naylor, who wasn't in his office that day.

By 5 p.m., campus police, concerned about safety as they moved through the
protester-packed hallways, had asked most of the administrative staff to
leave. Only six remained. Police attempts to clear the hallways as those
staff prepared to leave caused the protest to escalate.

The next four minutes of this escalation are captured in a grainy video
posted on YouTube. As protesters erupt into choruses of "shame!" the
camera pans right and officers and students come into view, grabbing at
one another in a way that could be described as neither friendly nor
violent. A young man, seated on the floor, blocks a doorway and is lifted
and tossed by a bald man who appears to be a campus police officer. The
image bumps and shifts, and another young man in a torn white tank top
emerges from beneath the feet of the crowd.

Unfortunately, rather than revealing what transpired, the video only
indicates a tempest of activity just outside the camera's frame. Students
say they were pushed, dragged and trampled by police; university employees
say that they were tripped by hysterical students who writhed on the floor
and grabbed at their legs.

All agree that what unfolded was deplorably violent.

Mr. Pieters, Ms. Varga's lawyer, advised her not to discuss the sit-in,
but she characterized it as a peaceful attempt to gain Mr. Naylor's ear.

"I'm very concerned with president Naylor's direction and the student
community understands that this is a crackdown on student rights," she
said.

However, observers not employed by the university have called the
student-protesters' behaviour "hysterical" and "belligerent," and days
after the sit-in, the New College Student Council rescinded its support of
Always Question, one of the main groups that organized the protest.

Mr. Naylor said that he was saddened the criminal charges may lead to
"potentially difficult outcomes" for the students, but that a strong
reaction by the university was necessary.

"The bottom line is, this isn't about free speech and dissent, it's about
what was a relatively disorganized protest that simply spiralled a little
bit out of control and led to some bad decisions about how to advance a
cause," he said.

The university's governing council approved the New College residence-fee
increases a few days after the sit-in.

Ms. Varga and the rest of the U of T Fightfees 14 are scheduled to appear
in court July 3.

Student protests past

1968 A three-day occupation of the Simon Fraser University administration
building in Burnaby ended when the RCMP arrested 114 students who were
protesting against a decision by the university's senate to reject student
demands for a more open admissions policy.

1969 Ninety-six students were arrested at Sir George Williams University
in Montreal (now part of Concordia University) after a two-week occupation
of the Henry A. Hall Building turned violent.

The students were protesting against the treatment of six black students
who allegedly received failing grades because of racism.

The students set fire to the university's data centre, destroying the
school's $1.4-million main computer after riot police were called in to
remove them.

Anne Cools, later appointed to the Senate by Pierre Trudeau, was among the
protesters who were subsequently charged and jailed. She was eventually
pardoned after she apologized. Student Roosevelt Douglas refused to
apologize for his role in the riot, which led to his arrest, conviction
and deportation to Dominica, where he was elected prime minister in
January of 2000.

1972 Seventy-five students occupied the Senate Chamber at the University
of Toronto's Simcoe Hall administration building to protest against the
senate's refusal to allow undergraduate students and the general public
complete use of Robarts Library.

The acting president called in police to eject demonstrators; 21 people
were arrested.

1990 Student protests at two Montreal universities led to one arrest, one
Molotov cocktail explosion, picket-line confrontations and the
cancellation of classes for thousands of students. A walkout at Concordia
University and a strike at the University of Quebec followed the
provincial government's plans to increase tuition fees. At Concordia,
about 35 police officers and security guards confronted students trying to
block entrances to the main downtown campus after a Molotov cocktail was
dropped from a nearby building.

2002 Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to cancel
a speech at Concordia University after a protest by pro-Palestinian
demonstrators. Riot police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of
demonstrators who tried to stop Mr. Netanyahu from delivering his speech
at the Hall Building.