FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
Ontario Should Condemn Israeli Apartheid Week
PC MPP URGES UNIVERSITIES TO PROTECT STUDENTS FROM INTIMIDATION
(Queen?s Park) - Peter Shurman, MPP (Thornhill) rose in the Legislative Assembly today on behalf of the Progressive Conservative Caucus to again condemn Israeli Apartheid Week and urged universities to protect their students from intimidation and the threat of violence.
?In Canada, we encourage informed debate because it may one day be the foundation for solutions to problems we haven?t yet solved. Universities should be the heart of that debate, but never the site of physical intimidation and threat of violence which we witnessed at York several weeks ago involving supporters of Israel confronted by supporters of certain Palestinian positions,? said Shurman.
Shurman?s constituency office has received numerous e-mails and phone calls from concerned constituents and York U. students who feel threatened by the recent aggressive demonstrations on their campus.
?Today I am calling on those responsible for security of students on all Ontario campuses during Israel Apartheid Week, indeed, at all times, to make certain that debate is never stifled, that Canadian hate laws are respected and that no one engages in physical intimidation to underscore opinions,? Shurman concluded.
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For further information please contact:
Monika Bujalska, Executive Assistant
Office of Peter Shurman, MPP-Thornhill
(416) 325-2505
monika.bujalska@pc.ola.org