Canadian Universities Condemn Israeli Academic Ban

During the normally quiet months of summer on campus, Canadian university presidents have been near unanimous in their denounciations of a call by Britain's largest professors' union to consider a boycott of Israel's institutions of higher learning.

The British resolution, endorsed at the end of May by 150 of the University and College Union's more than 120,000 members, suggests that locals consider a freeze on ties with Israeli universities including teacher and student exchanges, attendance at conferences and publication of research papers.

Based on the premise that Israeli universities are complicit in denying Palestinians the right to an education, the union's proposal -- at this point only to discuss such a possibility -- has since drawn widespread international condemnation for violating the sacred tenets of academic freedom.

From Dalhousie to Simon Fraser and most of the ivory towers in between, Canada's university principals, rectors, chancellors and presidents have gradually been adding their voices to the swell of opposition from the likes of outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the U.S. Congress, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and a long list of scholars that includes Nobel Prize winners.

At last count, 22 Canadian universities had released statements opposing the British union resolution.

In Vancouver, University of British Columbia president Stephen Toope was among the first to react.

"The attempt of one group of scholars to stifle the views of another is an affront to modern society and must be condemned wherever it arises," said Mr. Toope, himself a world-renowned human rights expert.

"Those British professors who have brought forward this shameful scheme ought to reflect on the example and consequence of the intolerance they are communicating to their students."