The MUN Students’ Union held a town hall on April 22, 2024, with Memorial University President Neil Bose, Minister of Education Krista Lynn Howell, PC Critic Craig Pardy, and NDP Leader Jim Dinn. Student journalist and activist Matt Barter questioned these individuals on protest rights, civil liberties, freedom of expression, transparency, and access to information. View the transcript below:
Matt Barter: Thank you, John, for introducing me. So, first of all, I would like to thank Jim Dinn for bringing up the example of the students paying for the library at MUN with the student centre fee, but what you left out is the University made a commitment to the students that at a later time that the University would fund a student centre and years later we still don’t have that student centre even though across Canada the student union buildings that the student union run the entire building, it’s theirs but at MUN we don’t have that. That’s a broken promise by the University. It’s the same thing with The Works fee. There was a handshake between the president at the time and the student union that it would be a temporary fee that would be eliminated, but we still have that fee, so the entire relationship between the administration and the students is the administration has always been really bad to students at Memorial and particularly in recent years the administration have clamped down on student protest. We’ve seen this with myself when I protested former president Vianne Timmons with a stop sign that said she needed to be stopped and no to tuition hikes and out-of-control spending. I was banned from campus for over three months, and then I was hit with a non-academic probation sentence. And I took MUN to the Supreme Court for this, which still has not been decided on after over a year. And also I have another matter at Supreme Court involving access-to-information because I filed an access request for the bonuses that were given to the executives at the Genesis Centre and C-Core and Memorial University and Neil Bose said that Memorial does not have that information, but the Information and Privacy Commissioner wrote a report that is 16 pages that says that MUN does have that information and that information should be released to the public so Memorial and Neil Bose LIED about this and not only did they lie they are now taking it to the Supreme Court to prevent that information from being released to the public and they are spending tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees to prevent that information from being shared with the public. To quote former Mayor Dennis O’Keefe, who said on the radio, “Who is trying to hide what?” So, my question to make it broad for everyone to answer, where do you stand on protest rights, civil liberties, and freedom of expression? And where do you stand on transparency and access to information? Thank you.
Neil Bose: To be honest, I couldn’t understand all of what you said, but I will say…
MB: What don’t you understand?
John Harris: I’ll clarify. It’s the student union building, the campus ban, and the C-Core and Genesis Centre ATIPP that’s been blocked, what’s going on and are you hiding this C-Core and Genesis ATIPP from getting the information that he’s been requesting? And where do you stand on civil liberties and the court case against Matt Barter?
NB: We will follow up in the usual way through the processes, but I haven’t lied as far as I know.
MB: You said you don’t have the information.
JH: Let’s keep it going, we don’t have much time. Anybody else on civil liberties, C-Core, and Genesis Centre?
Krista Lynn Howell: I’ll just take a quick minute to respond. This is certainly a conversation we could have for an hour, I’m sure, especially considering how passionate you are about this, but I think given the climate we find ourselves in right now, it’s important to recognize that everybody does have a right to peaceful protest and demonstration. However, it shouldn’t be at the consequence of another individual’s rights or causes and certainly not to condone any types of violence discrimination. So, I believe that’s certainly a stance we can take, and as for some of the other questions, hopefully, we’ll get the chance to talk in the future.
Craig Pardy: If the Information and Privacy Commissioner stated that the information should be released, it should be released, and that’s where transparency comes in. If these fine individuals over here, and by the way, I commend you for your advocacy on the thrift store. I think that would be a valuable, a great addition to the university. If you were holding a placard that may have been a little bit disparaging to me, not in the extreme sense, I would think that would be acceptable. You know, I’m sure Minister Howell can state some examples that would be unacceptable, so again, it depends on what the situation would be, but to hold a placard with a statement that would be on that, I don’t see that as being, you know, would not be permitted.
Jim Dinn: It was a student protest of the death of a student on Prince Philip Parkway that did the overpasses. I was there for that, so protest works. Protest is a fundamental right of democracy. Also, you can have disagreement without being polarized, you can find that common, that discussion as well. But the other part transparency, I can tell you that in the House of Assembly on a variety of issues, we fought for transparency, as have our colleagues in the opposition on a number of issues. That is key. Greg talked about having the data earlier, well that’s a large part, having the facts, having your information is key, and transparency is key to getting there.
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