Protests and Pedagogy: The Legacies of Caribbean Student Resistance and the Sir George Williams Protest, Montreal 1969

Abstract

Following two weeks of a peaceful sit-in protest, on February 11, 1969, the Montreal riot police stormed the Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) computer centre and assaulted and arrested nearly one hundred people. The students at Sir George had been protesting their experiences of discrimination and the university’s failure to take seriously their complaints about racism on campus. This discussion explores the significance of the 1969 protests as an intervention in Canadian higher education. It also situates that event in relation to narratives of the radical 1960s and explores the operations of the university as a site of knowledge and power. This discussion also raises questions about what we might learn from the protests in relation to current issues in the Canadian academy and offers reflections on Black studies in Canada today.