Concordia gallery council resigns in protest
Members of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery Advisory Council name Palestinian solidarity suppression as reason for resignation
Five members of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery Advisory Council resigned following the dismissal of gallery director Pip Day in November.
In their resignation letter sent to the administration on Jan. 9, the members said they believed Day’s dismissal was due to “her support of artists, students, and community groups who have spoken out on behalf of Palestinians.”
The Link received confirmation of Concordia University’s dismissal of Day on Nov. 18, less than six months after the start of her mandate in June 2024.
Ex-advisory council member Claudine Hubert claims that members were only notified of Day’s termination when reading an article in The Link.
“This disregard for our role, and for the institutional safeguards designed to prevent abuse, reflected a profound disconnect and lack of accountability within the administration,” Hubert said.
According to Concordia deputy spokesperson Julie Fortier, five of the council’s eight members resigned. Fortier clarified that the reason for Day’s dismissal cannot be disclosed as labour laws prevent the university from discussing “specific employee matters.”
“I want to reiterate that Concordia always respects its employees’ freedom of expression, as is quite evident from the diversity of views and stances regularly expressed by members of our community,” Fortier said, adding that the gallery has full control over its programming.
In the resignation letter, the advisory council noted that the university has failed “to recognize the legitimate right of the entire Concordia community to peacefully and meaningfully express their solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
A spokesperson for Students for Palestine's Honour and Resistance (SPHR) Concordia, who was granted anonymity for personal safety, agreed with the members’ statement.
“When tens of thousands of students go on strike for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and continue to get repressed and ignored, it’s clear that the university is not recognizing the legitimate right of students to express solidarity with Palestine and its people,” the SPHR spokesperson said.
Fortier said that the university regrets that some members have opted to resign, but also regrets that some groups have “called on artists and curators to boycott a space that has long supported the role of art as a catalyst for cultural debate, instead limiting opportunities for artists to freely showcase their work there.”
The resignation letter listed a few “disturbing events” that were alleged to have taken place during the Fall 2024 semester. The first was the university’s cancellation of a screening of the film Resistance, Why? at the Concordia J.A. DeSève Cinema on Oct. 11. The film screening was organized in partnership with the Montreal-based collective Regards Palestiniens.
Campus Safety and Prevention Services had sent Day a “postponement notice” for the screening on the evening of Oct. 10 because of “additional information regarding the event in question which necessitates further review.”
“The ad hoc outdoor film projection that took place instead was marked by a substantial security presence, reflecting a growing trend of securitization and surveillance at Concordia,” Regards Palestiniens member Claire Begbie said.
Begbie believes that censoring Palestinian films compromises awareness of the Palestinian cause.
“Palestinian films can serve as critical tools to teach students and other viewers about both the history and ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people against Zionism and its collaborators,” she added.
The resignation comes after artists Miryam Charles and Ésery Mondésir led a silent protest at the gallery on the evening of Nov. 21. They were invited to speak about their work, but chose instead to share their frustration with the arrest of two students by the SPVM at a “Cops Off Campus” rally on Oct. 31.
Hubert said she was in disbelief seeing the gallery used as a temporary detention centre for students and was unsettled by the images she saw afterwards.
“What message does an institution send when it summons police to its campus? [...] For students and faculty alike, watching peers detained within a gallery—or other spaces on campus—instills fear, shatters any sense of safety and fosters anxiety,” Hubert said.
Advisory council members also mentioned the arrests in the letter, claiming that the university did not protect Day from “numerous intimidating messages she received from external stakeholders and donors, criticizing the Gallery’s embrace of pro-Palestinian artists and causes.”
“What happened on that day is not only a clear violation of students' rights to protest, but turning the gallery to a detention centre and then blatantly lying about the reason [for] doing so is a beyond shockingly repressive behaviour from the administration,” said the SPHR spokesperson.
This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 8, published January 28, 2025.