THE VARSITY November 12, 2018
Vol. CXXXIX, No. 9
The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
Muslim Students’ Association says executives receiving surprise visits from law enforcement
U of T remembers
Officers have shown up unannounced to offices, homes asking for information since at least 2016 Josie Kao News Editor
The Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) at U of T said that its executives have been receiving surprise visits from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for at least three years. According to the group, officers have, on occasion, show up unannounced at executives’ homes. According to current and former MSA executives, officers have visited them on the basis of building community relations, as well as to seek information on a specific member of the group. The officers have always shown up in plainclothes. The most recent incident occurred over the summer, when an RCMP officer visited the MSA’s offices at 21 Sussex Avenue on the St. George campus. According to the MSA executive team, no one was there at the time so the officer went to the ULife office next door and left a card. The MSA said that during this visit the RCMP was “[seeking] information on a past member.” When asked by The Varsity to confirm these visits, RCMP spokesperson Louise Savard responded only by writing, “The RCMP will not confirm or deny if an investigation is taking place. If an investigation is taking place we will only comment if charges are laid.” The Varsity spoke with a former MSA executive who was visited at his home by CSIS in 2016. The executive, who wished to remain anonymous, described how two plainclothes officers showed up at his doorstep unannounced and went with him to a coffee shop nearby for an hour. According to the former executive, the officers started asking in a very “cordial” tone about the MSA and what it does, but it soon became clear to him that they were looking for information on radicalized students. He remembered questions about the number of members who were from the Middle East and what
groups the MSA associated with. He also recalled that the officers said that they thought U of T might be a place where students were becoming radicalized, and that they wanted to get to them before that happened. The former executive said that this approach showed “ignorance on how radicalization happens, ignorance on how to deradicalize,” and suggested that law enforcement would have done better by involving community leaders to address the issue. “I think it’s an absurd way of trying to [keep] tabs,” he said. “This is not a joke”: community responses to the visits In an interview with The Varsity, the current MSA executive team described this pattern of visits as “very shocking.” “This stuff shouldn’t be seen as normal… We’re talking about the safety and well-being of [U of T] students, particularly students of faith. This is not a joke,” said the executives. They added that they were worried about how this issue might stop people from getting involved with the MSA. The former executive said that during his tenure, he knew of students who had left the club after hearing about the visits from law enforcement. “We shouldn’t have to think at the back of our heads about the threat of being surveilled,” said the current executive team. They also emphasized that they do not want “this incident to be viewed in isolation,” saying that it speaks to a larger problem of Islamophobia. In an interview with The Varsity, Jasmin Zine, a professor of Sociology and Muslim Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, said that these types of visits have been happening at MSAs around the country. Zine has interviewed multiple Canadian MSAs and said that many of them, including the MSA at Laurier, have experienced similar contact from law enforcement. Zine has been in touch with the U of T MSA about their own experience with these visits. MSA, page 3
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A service commemorating members of the university community who served in the World Wars and other conflicts takes place at Soldiers’ Tower. SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY
Feature Rising up, speaking out: radical politics on campus through the years
12 Editorial
“We’re talking about the safety and wellbeing of [U of T] students, particularly students of faith. This is not a joke.”
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11 15
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U of T to ban all forms of smoking on campus in 2019
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Sports The Sports Ethicist weighs in on cannabis use in the NHL
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The University of Toronto has officially decided to ban smoking on all three campuses by January 1, 2019. This includes smoking tobacco or cannabis, as well as vaping. This will fulfil a September 2017 pledge, which was made shortly after McMaster University announced that they will ban smoking on their property effective January 1, 2018. The existing smoking policy dates back to 1995 — 11 years before it became illegal to smoke in bars and pubs in Ontario. The university will allow each campus to designate “smoking spots,” which will be decided based on how far away they are from main buildings. These smoking spots will be temporary, however, as the university aims to move toward a smokefree environment. Exceptions will be made for Indigenous ceremonies and medical requirements. “Our existing smoking policy is decades old and recent changes by the provincial government that allow smoking of cannabis in public spaces may increase the risk of exposure to second-hand smoke,” Kelly Hannah-Moffat, Vice-President Human Resources and Equity stated. “We feel this change is consistent with our goal to have a healthy campus environment.” The policy still needs to go through Governing Council in order to be fully approved. If this occurs, U of T will join 65 other universities and colleges across Canada that have banned smoking.