What the reviews found — and the settler-colonial throughline¶
Original source: https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2025/03/jangling-bells-report-third-party-investigation-clearing-palestinian-solidarity Additional: Kent report (U of A) https://www.ualberta.ca/en/governance/media-library/documents/final-encampment-report.pdf · CBC review coverage https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/university-of-alberta-encampment-review-judge-1.7404195 · Treaty-principles statement https://apihtawikosisan.com/2024/05/statement-of-treaty-principles-university-of-albertas-may-11th-attack-on-students-staff-and-community/ · law profs' open letter https://ablawg.ca/2024/05/14/an-open-letter-regarding-the-response-to-recent-protests-at-the-universities-of-alberta-and-calgary/ Retrieved: 2026-07-05
The official review (Kent) — exoneration¶
The U of A Board commissioned retired King's Bench Justice C. Adèle Kent, KC, after the Arts Faculty Council passed non-confidence in President Bill Flanagan and the General Faculties Council demanded an outside probe. Kent's report (issued Dec 6, 2024) concluded the administration "had the legal authority to do what it did," "did not need an injunction," and that having police dismantle the encampment was "reasonable and justifiable under the Charter" — while conceding the university could have responded differently (an injunction was the "cleanest" option; negotiation was possible). CBC headline: "Review finds University of Alberta had legal authority to clear pro-Palestinian encampment."
The critique ("Jangling the Bells," Centre for Free Expression)¶
A rebuttal essay argues Kent's report "exonerates Flanagan" but "should settle nothing." Key points, all sourced in the piece: - The encampment was peaceful; calling police after just two days pre-empted the students' chance to be heard in court under an injunction. "The calling-in of the police was already an act of violence against the protestors no matter how the police chose to exercise their coercive force." - Flanagan's public safety claims (armed protesters, drugs, imminent "counter-protestor" violence) were "unsubstantiated" / "rigorously debunked" by participant-professor David Kahane; Kent conceded "there was no evidence of counter-protestors in the Quad." - Constitutional scholar Jamie Cameron (Osgoode, emerita): police at a campus protest must be a "last resort"; s.2(c) Charter assembly protection holds "up to the point of violence." Former Queen's Bench Justice Sheila Greckol (Edmonton Journal op-ed, May 24 2024): "Police use of force against demonstrating students must be a last resort." - Flanagan later told GFC (Feb 2025) that how police conducted themselves "was entirely their decision. The university had no role in that" — i.e. washed his hands of the force EPS used.
The Treaty 6 / settler-colonial dimension (connects to the project spine)¶
A "Statement of Treaty Principles" signed by Indigenous community members and treaty allies condemned the May 11 clearing as an "attack on students, staff, and community" and argued the university, by defining the Quad as "private property," "turned its back" on the land as Treaty 6 territory and on principles of miyo-wîcêhtowin (good relations), wîtaskêwin (peaceful coexistence on the land), and tâpwêwin (truth-telling). The critique explicitly ties the university's private-property framing — the legal move that licensed police force — to a refusal of its Indigenization commitments.
Why filed here¶
This is the documentary bridge to the project's colonization throughline: the same EPS that razes homeless encampments (majority-Indigenous, on Treaty 6 land — settler-colonial dispossession) was deployed to clear a Palestine-solidarity encampment, and community members named both as violations of Treaty 6. The "police state / colonization" frame is not asserted from vibes here — it is the language used by the treaty-principles signatories themselves.