Letters
On the Neglect of Etiquette
On March 11th 2016, The Dalhousie Gazette published a piece by Mary Macdonald and Leah Aubrecht titled “Re: on the Neglect of the Palestinian Suffering.” The piece starts with an attack on Dr. Amal Ghazal’s lecture “The Origins of Zionism and the Age of Colonialism,” and transitions rather oddly to a general attack on the…
Read MoreThe BDS movement doesn’t speak for all Dal students
The Dalhousie Student Union is under no obligation to divest in response to the BDS Movement nor does the Students Against Israeli Apartheid speak on behalf of Dalhousie students. The hubris of this anti-Israel group is remarkable. By purporting to represent Dalhousie students, it issues demands that the DSU cave in to its ideological agenda. A disturbing escalation of anti-Israel rhetoric has…
Read MoreOn the neglect of Palestinian suffering
We at Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) get some emails every now and then telling us that what we talk about and what we advocate, despite it being true and ethical, is ‘divisive,’ and that it makes some uncomfortable. The same people sending us those emails would immediately imply that, by criticizing Israel’s abuse of…
Read MoreRe: Peter Svidler’s “Students Against Israel”
Being as much an Israeli/Canadian as Svidler (except probably quite a bit older) forces me to respond to some of his more bizarre contentions about local Haligonians reactions to his pride and loyalty to Israel. Having been a loyal citizen, a full-fledged academic, as well as a soldier in several wars, I nevertheless found Svidler’s…
Read MoreLetter to the editor
Let’s not pinkwash Israeli violations and our complicity in them We are writing in response to the letter published in the January 22 issue the Dal Gazette, [Re: Let’s make our union a more ethical one]. We couldn’t help but notice the assertion of Israel’s status as a democratic safe haven for queers – a…
Read MoreAn Open Letter to Dalhousie Students
Dear Dalhousie Students (and fellow Halifax community members), One of the referendum questions you face this year asks you to support the levy provisionally approved last year for South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre. You may be familiar with SoHo from its visibility and leadership on campus in issues of sexual and gender justice,…
Read MoreJonathan Williams’ speech for Dalhousie Student Union council
The following letter was emailed to the Gazette by Jonathan Williams, executive director of student advocacy group Students Nova Scotia, on Feb. 27, 2015. Williams appeared at a meeting of Dalhousie Student Union council that day in hopes of giving this speech to council before they would vote on whether the DSU should remain affiliated…
Read MoreIntolerable sexism at the CBC
When running the story about the advertisement on national primetime Dalhousie Dentistry Facebook posts, the CBC wrote ‘Dalhousie University in Halifax has launched an investigation into disturbing, sexually explicit Facebook posts attributed to male students in the faculty of dentistry’. I do not condone the actions of the dental students who took sexist images and…
Read MoreDSU Supporting Segregation
The pilot project introducing private swims for women at Dalplex raises concern. According to published reports, these swims have been implemented for “cultural” and “religious” reasons. It has been reported that the DSU supports this measure, and has contributed funding to purchase blinds at the pool. I am opposed to this pilot project which has…
Read MoreLetter: Restorative justice is not a solution
Opening my Toronto Metro newspaper on the subway yesterday morning, I was delighted to see an article on my alma mater Dalhousie nestled among its neat green pages. That delight lasted to the end of the headline. Once again, a Halifax university is making national news for violence against women. The rape chants, the Facebook…
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