Protect pro-Palestinian protesters on campuses: B.C. rights watchdog [Video]

Amid ongoing protest encampments on university campuses in B.C., the province’s human rights commissioner is calling on institutions to protect free speech.

In a statement Monday, Kasari Govender said she is concerned about students being penalized for protesting in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“Rights and responsibilities do not end at campus gates. Campus communities have the right to peaceful and lawful assembly and free expression,” she wrote.

Her statement comes after pro-Palestinian encampments were erected at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria and Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo last week. Similar protests have been taking place at universities across Canada and the United States.

Broadly, the organizers of the camps are calling on universities to cut ties with Israeli institutions, divest from companies they say are complicit in the war in Gaza and condemn Israel’s “genocide and scholasticide” in Gaza.

Thousands of protesters have been arrested on American college campuses, …