Send Email to the Mayor of Calgary In Response to Police Brutality on Student Encampment for Palestine at University of Calgary

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Read the Email Message below:

You are a mayor who prides yourself on accountability. In fact, “Accountability” is the second tab on the Office of the Mayor website, following “About Jyoti Gondek.” Furthermore, your mayoral website claims that it is part of your mission to give everybody “the ability to thrive in our city.” Unfortunately, last night, your police force brutalized, threatened, and physically assaulted peaceful students at the University of Calgary. I am sending this letter as a concerned citizen, hoping for accountability.

Before 7 pm on Thursday, May 9th, the UCalgary encampment was a peaceful, non-violent, and collaborative demonstration placing rightfully deserved pressure on the university administration to reconsider their investments in weapons companies and companies involved in an ongoing genocide. With heavy university tuition costs, students have the right to know where their money is being spent. Participants were wholly cooperative, made their demands clear, and established a series of community guidelines for participants to ensure a safe environment. If asked, anyone who attended the protest would reaffirm its positive, uplifting nature: a diverse mosaic standing in solidarity. Despite these efforts, the Calgary Police Force arrived shortly after 7 pm in riot gear, carrying weapons, and threatening these peaceful protesters with arrest, trespassing, and potential sanctions from the university.

Following a standoff, university protesters largely began packing up, cleaning, and dismantling the encampment. However, the police quickly instigated aggression, leading to the use of pepper spray, non-lethal gun shooting, body slamming with riot shields, and explosive projectiles being detonated—all on a group of unarmed civilians, primarily students. In fact, there were over 50 police cars, vans, a helicopter, and even a mobile command centre setup.

As leader of the city, we expect you to address this disproportionate response from law enforcement that attacked the future generation of this city. We ask you and your colleagues in city council to:

• publicly address this situation and condemn the use of force by police officers, reaffirming students’ right to protest
• publicly address the University of Calgary, whose response is unprecedented in Canada; calling to light the peaceful encampments around the country
• audit and assess this incident, including the prosecution of police officers who assaulted students and police officers in charge of the decision to use this force
• re-evaluate Calgary police protocol regarding the treatment of protestors and demonstrations around the city to stop future brutalization from taking place

Thank you for reading my letter and concerns regarding this pressing matter that has traumatized hundreds of students and community members. As mayor and leader of Calgary, I hope you will not stand from the sidelines in addressing this situation. It’s in times like these that your city looks to you and your response.

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