Protesters made signs and handed out pamplets at Dalhousie. ( Photo Provided: Dalhousie Gazette )
Police forcibly removed several protestors from Dalhousie University’s career fair on Feb. 10 after they entered with banners and leaflets objecting to the presence of Lockheed Martin, a defence contractor who donated $2 million to Dalhousie in May 2008.
Protestors from the Student Coalition Against War (SCAW) and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group assembled outside the fair.
They distributed leaflets, provided information through speakerphones and carried banners with slogans such as “War profiteers not welcome,” said Jesse Robertson, a SCAW member and Dalhousie student who attended the protest.
Police began to use force when protestors entered the building.
Some students “were quite forcibly removed for distributing leaflets” inside the fair, Robertson said.
“There was quite a large police presence.”
Robertson credited Dalhousie’s Career Services with the police presence, saying that a protest letter SCAW sent to their office earlier was seen as threatening.
“The Dalhousie Career Services later said the letter was threatening but didn’t say how,” Robertson said.
The letter outlined Lockheed Martin’s “harmful role in global conflict” and concluded “SCAW and its community allies are prepared to do any and all hard work necessary to prevent our university from becoming a friendly place for war profiteers . . . Those who make billions of dollars from the misery of the most oppressed and downtrodden are not welcome on our campus.”
The letter included the endorsement of seven organizations and 18 university professors.
“The letter received no response, so the protest went ahead,” Robertson said.
Lockheed Martin postponed a visit to the University of New Brunswick scheduled for Jan. 20 because a similar letter was sent to the school, Robertson said.
The UNB visit was rescheduled for Feb. 23 and 24 and “received a lot of interest” from engineering students, according to Michael Barton, communications manager for Lockheed Martin Canada and an attendant of the fair at Dalhousie.
As for the Dalhousie protests, “We weren’t very observant of it,” Barton said.
He said the accusations of war profiteering did not threaten Lockheed Martin.
“We don’t deny that we’re a military contractor,” Barton said.
However, the protestors’ concerns weren’t just with the company’s presence. Robertson said that they were also against Dalhousie’s decision to accept a $2 million donation from Lockheed Martin in 2008.
Robertson said the university made a morally debatable decision with no debate.
“My problem is with the university promoting these things without student consent.”
Barton said the donation was part of a much larger deal with the Canadian government.
“The donation was part of an Industrial Regional Benefit Package (IRB) required by Industry Canada when the government buys military equipment,” Barton said.
Dalhousie’s communications manager Charles Crosby told Dalhousie’s Gazette that while the funding doesn’t
allow Lockheed Martin to influence research, the company does have a right to any intellectual property the research produces.