Fredericton has witnessed solidarity for Palestine over the past two months with weekly demonstrations
outside city hall, student-led walkouts, film screenings, and other events.
I recently came across Sara Ahmed’s research blog feministkilljoys and her article, “Killjoy Truths,” where
she notes “to express solidarity with Palestine is to be a killjoy.”
For Ahmed, a feminist writer and independent scholar, to be a killjoy is to call out injustice, never get
over histories of colonial violence, and be “willing to get in the way,” causing unhappiness or killing joy
for those who support the settler, the oppressor.
Killjoys cause discomfort as they expose the violence that governments, universities, and individuals
want to keep concealed by discouraging support and choosing silence.
The multiple acts of Palestinian solidarity in Fredericton are expressions of killjoys. Activists and student
groups have been organizing to assemble resistance, uniting people from all backgrounds to reveal the
violence in colonial occupation and call for ceasefire in Gaza.
The weekly protests every Saturday outside City Hall bring together members of the Fredericton
community to remind others that the call for peace is an ongoing struggle and to never get over
histories that are not over, as Ahmed notes.
Students from the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University organized a walk-out on
campus on November 22. Students, faculty, and members gathered to call for ceasefire with chants of freedom:
From every nation in occupation, free Palestine.
Brick by brick, wall by wall, occupation has to fall.
Brick by brick, wall by wall, Palestine will never fall.
Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry. Gaza, Gaza, rise.
No justice, no peace.
1234 occupation has to go.
Cease fire, save lives.
All leaders listen, silence makes you complicit.
Justin Trudeau you can’t hide, you’re aiding genocide.
Not a nickel nor a dime, no more money for genocide.
A week later, on November 29, student walk-outs took place at Fredericton High School, École Saint-Anne, Leo Hayes High School, the University of New Brunswick, St. Thomas University and the New Brunswick Community College. The act of walking out of the middle of the class is a transgression of the colonial institution of the education system. Killjoys are transgressors for peace and justice.
But not everyone may be able to be out there in the streets in fear that governments, universities, and others will target them for their activism. We may compromise relationships with loved ones, or immigration status. We can find more ways to be killjoys. I’m using a pseudonym in this piece. Others are learning and sharing about the war through conversations and forms of art. We can be killjoys in our ways.
Cinema Politica Fredericton, a non-profit media arts organization, hosted screenings about Palestine every Wednesday in November at Gallery on Queen. Solidarity groups on social media platforms are on the rise, with groups such as Fredericton Palestine Solidarity, Fredericton Friends of Palestine, Students for Palestine, and others forming webs of resistance in our community.
So, are you on board on this killjoy movement?
Flor de Sol is the pseudonym of a Fredericton university student who wishes to remain anonymous.