"Student Politics" (2003) internet release

On September 9th, 2002, Israeli accused war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak at Concordia, Canada's university with the largest Arab and Muslim student body. "Bibi" as he is referred to by many supporters of Israeli Apartheid was en route to sell the illegal war on Iraq to the Canadian Parliament and American Congress. He was to speak at the invitation of the late Israel Asper, at the time owner of CanWest-Global which controlled 85% of all English dailies in the country.

Concordia university was the centre of Palestinian rights movement on Campus in North America. Five consecutive years of progressive Concordia Student Union being elected, which included equal representation for Arab and Muslim students, attracted the whole might of the Israeli lobby in Canada and the Israeli Government, who saw the university as the testing ground for the larger battle of Israeli Public Relations on North American campuses.

The Zionist attack to dislodge progressive politics at Concordia, reached peaks even before the vicious campaign to bring in reactionary students into power that followed the cancelling of Netanyahu's segregated political rally. The year before, after September 11th, 2001, the Zionist lobby on and off campus flamed the hatred to Arabs and Muslims which helped them round up almost enough signatures to impeach the CSU executive under calls of "if you do not want the fags and Arabs to run the union sign here". While the Concordia administration summarily expelled a CSU exec and a councillor, only to be forced by court to follow the rules of natural justice.

Under this backdrop came the latest plan in the uneven battle between student activists and the whole of the global Israeli lobby. The event was designed by Citizen Asper; as students called him at Concordia, to create what Noam Chomsky refers to as "manufacturing consent". Under pressure from Zionist donors, the university administration agreed to host the event against the recommendations of RCMP, SQ and even Concordia`s own security and faculty. Everyone knew what the outcome would be. It was to lead to an eight months national and international media campaign to elect a right wing CSU controlled by the Administration and Zionist external groups.

Although many hours of reports and three major documentaries by CBC, NFB and Global, were produced; only one film actually addressed the real universal issues at play in the story, student space, independence of university from lobbies, governments and corporations, and the real meaning of the quest for knowledge. It was produced by members and staff at an obscure film production club called CUTV. The film emphasizes the importance of citizen and community media as a counter weight to the corporate and government media outlets.