Sara Russo

The student union of Concordia University, located in Montreal, revoked the registration of Concordia Hillel, the campus's main Jewish organization, after flyers soliciting volunteers for the Israeli Defense Forces were discovered on the group's campus information table. In a move labeled an "ambush" by Hillel members, the student council held an after-hours meeting and voted to rescind the group's organizational privileges, which include its ability to obtain funding, set up tables, and hold events at the University.

Termed an "emergency meeting" by union representatives, the last-minute caucus to suspend Hillel was held at midnight on December 2, the last school day of the fall term and directly prior to the start of finals. Owing to the late hour and inconvenient date, only nine of the body's 27 members were present for the vote, which was 8-1 in favor of revoking Hillel's privileges.

Representatives of the student union claim that their actions against Concordia Hillel were warranted because distributing the Israeli Defense flyers violated Canada's Foreign Enlistment Act. The act prohibits Canadians from recruiting or encouraging anyone to "enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state."

Hillel members emphatically deny that the fliers violated the Act. Hillel has issued a statement claiming that the organization "does not, nor has it ever, recruited for the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] or any other foreign agency of any kind."

"The motion passed by the CSU, in violation of the rules governing the adoption of such motions, was a deliberate attempt by certain forces within the CSU to smear the good name of Concordia Hillel and in doing so to silence their political opponents on campus," continues the statement. "The resulting motion is a violation of the rights of Concordia Hillel to due process and, in effect if not intent, of the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly of the Jewish students at Concordia."

The flyers, they note, were published by an independent organization called Mahal, and were placed on the Hillel information table by someone unaffiliated with the group, acting on his own initiative.

According to military historian Jack Granatstein, the Foreign Enlistment Act was enacted in 1937 to keep Canadians from enlisting to fight in the Spanish Civil War. "I can't think of any cases in which it has been used since," he told the Montreal Gazette.

"A single piece of paper lying on a table is not recruitment," argued Michael Bergman, a lawyer hired to represent Hillel.

Administrators at Concordia have criticized the union's actions, but refuse to mediate the dispute. "CSU is an autonomous corporation accredited under the laws of Quebec. Through this accreditation, the CSU has essentially the status, power and responsibilities akin to that of an accredited labor union," stated the University in a press release. "The CSU Executive has the authority to take the same action that they have requested of the university administration. We cannot absolve them of their responsibility and legal duty to conduct their affairs in a fair, equitable, and non-partisan matter," it continued. Despite this failure to intervene, the press release noted that "In the university's opinion, the current sanctions against Hillel are wholly disproportionate and should be modified."

Canadian students are not guaranteed the same protections of expression that the First Amendment affords American students at public colleges. This past September, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned speech at the University after violent protests erupted involving several hundred demonstrators who stormed the campus meeting hall and threw chairs at the police, provoking security concerns. Following that incident, a 10-week moratorium on campus events related to the Middle East was issued by the University. The moratorium ended just a week prior to the Hillel suspension.

Members of CSU remain divided on how to resolve the crisis. Two Jewish members of the student union, Aaron Mate and Ralph Lee, have argued for immediately reinstating Hillel, and have criticized the union by claiming that it acted as "judge, jury and executioner" in suspending the organization. CSU President Sabine Friesinger, meanwhile, has offered Hillel conditional reinstatement, which would allow the group to hold meetings but would prevent them from obtaining the $3,000 in funding that they typically receive. Furthermore, the student council passed a resolution stating that in order to receive full funding, Hillel would have to deliver a formal public apology for the flyers, and would be forced, along with all other student organizations, to sign a statement promising to ban speeches and pamphlets recruiting for any military organization.

Unsatisfied by CSU's offer, Hillel has acquired legal representation, and is planning to file a civil suit in Quebec Superior Court demanding that their organization be unconditionally reinstated, and seeking damages from the union. They are further demanding that the student union publicly apologize to them for their suspension.

"For the first time since 1930s Austria, a Jewish student organization has been shut down," Hillel said in a press conference.