No police intervention after UNB issues trespass notices to prof, student for pitching tent

Police were at the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus on Wednesday morning after activists defied trespass notices by setting up a tent at a Palestine solidarity protest site.

On Tuesday, rainy weather prompted activists to set up the shelter, resulting in a swift reaction from UNB security, who issued trespass notices to a professor and a doctoral student.

The university has said it respects the right to peaceful protest, if it doesn’t involve any kind of tent or other temporary structures. But activists called UNB’s actions a crackdown on public demonstrations.

UNB doctoral candidate Sarah Durham and Prof. Jeff Houlahan, chair of the biology department, confirmed they had received the trespass notices on Tuesday.

The notices appear to ban them from campus altogether. However, Houlahan said on Wednesday morning that, in fact, he is allowed on campus but cannot put up a tent, citing a conversation with security officials on campus.

“I realize that isn’t very consistent with the [trespass notice] document, but that’s why I think they don’t know what they’re doing,” Houlahan said in an email.

The two activists must stay off “any premises owned, occupied or controlled” by UNB for seven days, according to a trespass notice issued Tuesday by UNB security.

It adds that, in case of violation, “police will be called immediately requesting your removal and to pursue charges under the Trespass Act.”

It states that offenders may receive a fine ranging from $240 to $5,200 for the first violation. A second violation could lead to a maximum fine of $10,200 “and/or imprisonment to a maximum of 30 days.”

Security threatened to escort the professor off campus on Wednesday when he refused to take down the tent again, according to activists. Video from the scene shows Saint John police and UNB security in the quad.

“They’re deciding whether they’re going to escort me off campus,” Houlahan says in the video.

However, by the end of the day, no police action had occurred and activists removed their protest site as usual. A Saint John Police spokesperson said he had nothing to add beyond information reported by the NB Media Co-op.

In an interview on Wednesday afternoon, Houlahan said the protesters have support from many faculty members and his union, who see the issue as a question of academic freedom and free speech.

Student-led movement

The increased tension comes about four weeks after protesters set up the protest site at UNB Saint John amid scrutiny over the university’s connections to Israel and the military-industrial complex.

It’s part of a student-led movement calling on universities to disclose and sever ties with that country, which faces charges of genocide over the war in Gaza.

While some universities elsewhere in North America have seen large-scale encampments, activists at UNB Saint John haven’t attempted to camp overnight, instead occupying part of the quad during the daytime on weekdays.

The university recently distributed a document on “expectations for a peaceful protest,” which states, in part, that temporary structures such as tents are prohibited, in an apparent bid to avoid an encampment at UNB’s campuses.

The NB Media Co-op has requested interviews with senior administrators. Marcia Seitz-Ehler, UNB’s interim director of communications, provided a brief emailed statement on Tuesday.

The statement noted that nobody was evicted or removed from campus, and confirmed that “two people – who refused to remove a tent – were issued trespass notices.”

It states that “UNB supports peaceful protest,” and that security “has been clear about the expectations for a peaceful protest,” citing rules that forbids tents and other structures such as barricades.

‘Crack down’

Durham, the doctoral candidate, argued that the university isn’t supporting peaceful protest, but “just trying to find ways to crack down on it.”

“Essentially they’re just terrified that we’re going to start a big encampment,” she said.

Durham said rainy weather on Tuesday morning struck her as a “perfect opportunity to set up a tent and see what happens.”

Security approached her about 10 minutes after she pitched the tent. “I said… ‘I just want to stay out of the rain. I plan to take this down at the end of the day,'” but a security guard eventually told her the tent had to go.

After protesters refused to comply, UNB security officials who said they were from the Fredericton campus arrived and issued the trespass notices, according to Durham.

“They gave us those papers… and they said, you have 30 minutes to take the tent down, otherwise we’re gonna call the cops,” she said.

However, the police didn’t show up on Tuesday, and the activists took down the tent at the end of the day, as planned.

“It’s hard to imagine something more innocuous,” Houlahan said of the protest. “On the other hand, every day people come by — students, staff, community members — to provide a gentle reminder to passersby that elsewhere in the world people are suffering horribly.”

He decided to launch the peaceful protest at the Saint John campus because he was “just incapable of continuing to do nothing.”

The Palestine Solidarity Committee of Saint John called the trespass notices an example of “moral corruption” in a post on Twitter, formerly X. “They accuse the staff & students of trespassing, but they are okay with the military occupation of [Palestine].” 

Houlahan and Durham said seniors members of the UNB administration have ignored their requests for meetings. “The only UNB personnel we’ve had a chance to talk to are security personnel,” Houlahan said.

The documents from UNB security refer to a section of the Act that prohibits trespassing on a “lawn, garden or enclosed premises.” But activists pointed to another section of the Act that specifically references universities, and includes an exception for “peaceful public demonstration.”

Houlahan said that one community member who attends the protest regularly is from Gaza and “has lost more than a hundred family or friends since October 7.”

On Wednesday, the Israeli military continued its assault on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where close to a million people had previously taken shelters, while Algeria circulated a UN Security Council resolution calling for Israel to halt the offensive, according to reports.

By Tuesday, at least 36,096 people in Gaza had been killed, including more than 15,000 children, according to Al Jazeera.

This story was updated on Thursday, May 30 at 10:20 a.m.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).