By Jim Donnelly

The steel bars of the heavy-duty, black Magnum bicycle lock wrap around her throat almost delicately, and as the police siren wails in the distance, Jennifer Copestake smiles to herself. The cops are coming. She’s accomplished her mission.

When Copestake and three other Carleton students locked themselves to the front gates of the British High Commission last March in Ottawa they were doing more than protesting the U.S.-led war in Iraq that was two days old. They were also continuing a long-standing Carleton tradition of political action through protest.

"Not everyone can get elected,” says Copestake, a first-year political science student. “It’s important that people participate directly in the political process, and take part in any way they can.”

Baker’s Lounge has been the setting for recent protests including this one against the Iraqi war in March 2003. (Photo: Tim Lai, the Charlatan)

Periods of student dissent have ebbed and flowed throughout the decades on Carleton’s campus, last peaking at the height of the Vietnam war in the early 1970s. In recent months, the number of protests seem to have grown exponentially.

Indeed, Carleton’s informal political landscape is flourishing with social protest organizations such as Copestake’s Global Peace Coalition, a multi-campus organization promoting opposition to war, and Youth for Life, an anti-abortion group. Other active campus organizations include Pine Gate Sangha and the Friends for Peace, which recently led a 5,000-strong “song circle” protest on Parliament Hill.

In March, a protest staged by the student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, sparked an outcry from Jewish students on campus. Demonstrators dressed in army fatigues had set up mock checkpoints in Baker Lounge, and rows of tombstones bearing photos of Palestinians who had been killed.

Joseph Zangar Bright Jr., outgoing president of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), which controls access to the space, says the incident prompted CUSA to review its policies to ensure future displays are not as “prominent.” But he adds, “We will not stop students from expressing freedom of speech or political dissent.”

Carleton University students protest against racism, circa 1979.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, groups such as the Student Christian Union, the Student’s Union for Peace Action and the Canadian Union of Students were all politically active at Carleton, and led various demonstrations on and off campus.

Former activist Graham Deline, BA/71, says the Vietnam war and the fight for a new student government were top priorities in his day, and he recalls that Carleton generally provided a good forum for open discussion.

"In all universities, there’s usually some sort of dialogue, some openness to discussion,” he says, adding that actions like Copestake’s are sometimes necessary to attract public attention to an issue.

"I don’t think anybody should be hurt in these things, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with civil disobedience,” says Deline. “If it would shorten the war, or save the lives of people who died, a few days in jail is no big deal.”

An on-campus demonstration against the Vietnam war, circa 1969. ZOOM IN

Direct political action has played a significant role on Canadian university campuses dating back to the Vietnam war, according to Randal Marlin, an associate professor in Carleton’s philosophy department and president of the Civil Liberties Association of the national capital region. The right of assembly is necessary for any healthy democracy, he says, be it country or institution.

"The ability to protest has to be central,” says Marlin, who has been an activist since the late 1960s. “It’s a fundamental right within any society that wants to call itself a democracy.”

Former student activist Rod Manchee, who attended Carleton in the early 1970s, says the university’s attitude during the 1960s and early 1970s was usually one of tolerance, and that the administration of Davidson Dunton, the university’s fifth president who served from 1958-1972, was exceedingly liberal.

"That spirit tended to imbue a lot of the administration. Their attitude was ‘ok, these people want to do something, so let’s let them do it.’”

Students protest the Iraqi war in Ottawa, 2003. (Photo: Natalie Bay, the Charlatan)

Marlin agrees that Carleton has traditionally been open to discussion and demonstration, and acknowledges that protesting at Carleton seems to be on the rise. But he says it’s important to take note of exterior factors before jumping to conclusions.

"It’s undoubtedly true that there are fashions, that there are times when protests are in, and times when they’re not,” he says, listing the current international situation, global warming and profit-maximizing corporate practices as possible motives for action.

Directaction protests are one of the only ways for students to get their message noticed by the public and media, Copestake claims.

"I don’t think there’s a hierarchy of issues, but if you’re upset with something, then protesting is definitely a good way to express your concern,” she says, adding that the Iraqi war has fanned the flames of political dissent among students. “It’s definitely a form of civic involvement, and in times of crisis you’re going to have a lot more of that.”