Keeping BDS Out of Academia: A Canadian Case Study

A recent case study concerns the Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA), the labour union that represents about 600 full-time faculty members and professional librarians at Brock .

Assistant professor of sociology named Gökbörü Sarp Tanyildiz got his “ Motion on Scholasticide in Palestine ” onto the agenda of BUFA ’s December 16, 2024 meet-up.

He calls for Brock administration (and its pension planners) to execute a “complete divestment” from any organizations that’re “complicit” in this regard.

Brock faculty member Tanyildiz argued that anyone who opposed his motion was effectively a maidservant to genocide.

He said: “We cannot be complicit, like the complicit institutions in Israel , to a genocide. Genocide and genocide denialism undermine our academic freedom, our work conditions, our scholarship, in any way, to be tied with an ongoing genocide.”.

The last twenty minutes of the meeting consisted of confusing cross-talk and duelling procedural motions; with BUFA members variously seeking to force the meeting to end, continue, or be suspended in some form.

It's uncertain what will become of Tanyildiz ’s motion; it doesn’t really matter.

The movement has done nothing to inhibit Israel 's largely successful military response to Hamas ’ 2023 terrorist attacks.