Canadian groups express solidarity with Campaign

The Right to Education campaign went on a chilly northern road trip last month with a week-long tour of several major cities across Canada.

Danny Glenwright, campaign coordinator at Bethlehem University, took part in a short speaking tour in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

“It was amazing to see the great support for education issues in Canada,” said Glenwright. “Not only are the Canadian students active, but they are well-versed in Palestinian issues and eager to help promote the campaign.”

Glenwright said the painful stories of violations to Palestinian students’ right to education resonated on Canadian campuses.

“As places of learning, it was a good fit. Canadian teachers and students were able to see that the issues they face paying high fees or fighting large class sizes pale in comparison to some of the horrendous daily suffering faced by Palestinian students under Israeli occupation.”

In Ottawa, Glenwright met with a delegation of winners of the EU-Canada Young Journalist Award, of which he is also a previous winner. He spoke with more than 12 journalists as well as the EU Ambassador to Canada about the right to education campaign at Bethlehem University.

In Montreal, Glenwright spoke to more than 50 students at a Concordia University education discussion hosted by Concordia’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group. Along with a Palestinian student currently studying at Concordia, Glenwright discussed access to education issues in the West Bank and took questions about the campaign.

Doug Smith, the organizer of the event and President of Concordia’s SPHR group, said he hoped the event would galvanize students around right to education issues in Palestine.

“The idea is to engage the student body on a wider scale by educating them on a level to which they can relate,” he said.

Glenwright also spoke with students unions and activist organizations at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal.

In Toronto, he met at Ryerson University with a group of more than 20 interested faculty, staff and students from several higher education institutions in the Toronto area.

“Overall, I think Canadians are opening their eyes to the daily human rights abuses that are being carried out in Palestine,” he said. “I think we can expect greater future cooperation from Canadian friends around right to education issues and speaking out against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

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