Trudeau on campus demonstrations in support of Palestinians
I think we have to remember what universities are. Universities are places of learning. Universities are places where the freedom of speech, freedom of ideas, the challenge of debate, of dialogue, of discussion about how to shape the world, how to see the world, how to go on out after university, college and lead the world. Our core part of what campuses are all about. The same time, we need to make sure that as part of that, everyone can feel safe on campus, whether you’re Jewish, Jewish student, whether you’re Palestinian, whether you have strong feelings on one side or the other. And on that, we have to trust both universities to manage their campuses right and local police of jurisdiction to do their work to make sure that everyone is safe. So I take it, are you just, do you think the police should decide whether they should be removed or not? Are you concerned about about violence, as we’ve seen in the United States, conflict between different sides? It sounds like you don’t really want to weigh in one way or another about whether they should stay. I have been weighing in on this issue of the angst and the anguish, the anger, the fear the Canadians have been feeling for months and months and months. Since the October 7th attacks. That have led to feelings of deep uncertainty in the Jewish community around the rise of anti-Semitism, but also deep, deep concerns amongst the Muslim communities around the humanitarian catastrophe that’s going on in Gaza right now, the rise in Islamophobia. These are things that are challenging for a diverse and pluralistic society like Canada to deal with. But. We must. We do that through conversations. We do that through making sure that everyone is protected, that laws are enforced, that people take on their responsibilities to create spaces for conversation, in which everyone can feel safe and nowhere is that more important, that everyone can feel safe. Having a full range of conversations and and debate and dialogue and challenges. Then on university and college campuses.