PROFESSORS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE END TO BOMBINGS IN VIETNAM
Toronto
In a statement issued to the press. January 5, 338 members of the University of Toronto faculty called for an “immediate , unconditional and permanent end to the bombings of north and south Vietnan.
"They urged the Canadian government to ‘demand this of the U.S. and at the: same time "reveal all military production contracts related in any way to the Vietnam war." Ottawa, they said, should "consider following the example of Sweden in refusing to sell arms to the U.S. until this intervention ceases." ..
The statement had been circulated throughout the faculty ‘gust before the Christmas. celebrations. Its initiators pointed out in an accompanying statement that "although the students at this University have been fairly active in searching for ways of exerting pressure to bring this slaughter to an end, the faculty have done very little."
In behalf. of the faculty, and in answer to a previous protest, Professor Mc- Naught explained that "a group of us came together and decided that with the fourth or fifth escalation of the war it was time to make known the opinion of the faculty | again."
While the petition does not refer to it, some of the faculty are known to be gravely concerned about the use of Canadian university research facilities and personnel to aid the U.S. aggression. Early in November the editor of the Montreal McGill university student paper was fired for publishing an article revealing that a professor on that campus was working on a U.S.-financed project involving a method of determining the solidity of the. ground from the air so that planes can land in an unknown area.
The University of Toronto student Committee to End the War in Vietnam organized a protest meeting which was addressed by the deposed editor. He was later reinstated.
The statement signed by the 338 also called for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Vietnam -- with the rider, "as early as possible." The professors did not make clear why they did not call for immediate withdrawal and why they thought it should be left to the ‘American aggressors to decide when to withdraw.
Despite this limitation, the statement by the 338 may well mark a significant development for the entire Canadian anti~Vietnam-war movement.
The first serious sign of concern in professorial circles came in response to the November 11-12 Student Days of Protest initiated by the University of Toronto Committee to.End the War in Vietnam. A sizeable group of faculty members of Montreal's Sir George Williams University firmly solidarized themselves with the student action.
In Toronto several University of Toronto faculty members participated in student actions around the November 11-12 protest. .
‘The University of Toronto committee intends to send a delegation to the prime minister and the minister of External Affairs. Professor McNaught éxpressed the opinion that there "seems to be a marked interest in making the committee a vehicle for continued.action."
The statement was sent to all full-time, on-campus faculty members. More than twenty-five percent signed, including sixty deans of faculties and full professors. Along with leading Canadian academicians were at least three college principals -- Professor Northrop, Frye of Victoria, Dr. D.C. Williams of Erindale and Dr. Robin Harris of Innis College.