Students came together on Sept. 17 to protest against a police force recruiting event at the University of New Brunswick.
The ‘No Cops on Campus’ protest was a success, as the recruitment event hosted by the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) moved off UNB campus to the Crowne Plaza in Downtown Fredericton.
The UNB Student Organizing Collective (UNBSOC) is the organization behind the counter rally. They stated recent RCMP violence against Indigenous peoples in New Brunswick and the fatal shooting of Mathios Arkangelo by the EPS this past June as the main reasons for the protest.
The event saw just six protestors and yet it ended up being a success. Emery Hatchard, the media coordinator for UNBSOC, hopes that the collective continues to see more people involved in future rallies.
“Not everything can be achieved with six people standing with signs, sometimes you need hundreds of students coming out for anything to be changed,” said Hatchard.
She categorized the protest as being a “hopeful and invigorating” thing for people on campus and said that the collective has received a lot of good feedback from people across the country.
“It shows that protests do work, you can actually win things, you’re not just going out there and shouting into the void,” said Hatchard. “It does set the tone going forward.”
Angus Fletcher was contacted by UNBSOC to be an organizer for the protest and said that it was arranged with the idea of ensuring safety for students on campus.
“Policing is specifically designed, at least partially, for the oppression of Indigenous and racialized folks and we don’t think that their presence in campus, or our communities, is something that makes us safer,” said Fletcher.
Speaking as a UNB alum, Fletcher recognizes the “vibrant student culture” as being a part of what makes the university exceptional.
“Having a broader culture of activism, both in UNB and Fredericton, is I think beneficial for everybody,” said Fletcher.
Hatchard hopes that the success of this protest can translate to future activism from people both on university campuses and in the community for causes such as this one.
She encourages those who offer their support from a distance to get more involved in order to make change.
“Rather than just being like, ‘this sucks, I hate that the administration is doing this,’ do something about it. Organize a protest, sign a petition,” said Hatchard.
