On October 24, 2025, then-Interim Associate Vice-President (Academic) and Dean of Students Dr. Christine Arnold, when asked where she stood on protest rights and freedom of expression, said she supported those rights as long as respect was maintained. She used the word “respectful” several times.
The Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nat Hurley, challenged the premise: “Protest, by its very nature, is supposed to make people feel uncomfortable about something, so I don’t think it’s enough to say, ‘it must be respectful.’ Respectful according to whom?”
Hurley pointed to entrenched power imbalances across the university, from senior administration down to students, and suggested creating an independent ombudsperson office that sits outside all the various interest groups to mediate what is and is not respectful and to determine the limits of protest.
“That might be a way to dig a little deeper into this question of, you know, how do you respectfully protest when protest is about challenging something in the status quo?” she said.
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