MONTREAL — Concordia University officials assumed responsibility Wednesday for a wild protest last September that forced the cancellation of a speech by former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Concordia rector Frederick Lowy said the university put students, faculty and staff in danger by failing to properly secure the downtown Hall building before the protests got out of hand. He also released a report that highlighted co-ordination problems between police and campus security before and during the skirmishes.

"We were not adequately prepared for the events of that day," Lowy told reporters. "The level of violence that we saw was unprecedented on this issue in Montreal and contrary to all the advance intelligence."

Concordia's mea culpa wasn't enough to deflect criticism from all sides in the Middle East conflict.

Jewish groups said the university didn't do enough to prevent the protesters from choking off free speech by disrupting the event.

Pro-Palestinian advocates, meanwhile, said Concordia should never have allowed such a controversial figure to deliver an address on a campus with a large Arab population.

Year-long tensions between Jewish and pro-Palestinian groups at Concordia exploded Sept. 9 when pro-Palestinian protesters got inside the Hall building prior to the start of Netanyahu's scheduled address.

The demonstrators clashed with riot police and smashed furniture and a window.
Police responded by beating back the protesters with batons and pepper spray, prompting university officials to cancel the speech.

A Concordia memo released Wednesday suggested the speech should have been held at the university's suburban campus west of downtown, where it might have been easier to control the large crowds.

It also said the Hall building should not have been left open to the public prior to the speech - a move that allowed protesters to gather inside and disrupt the event.

The university also criticized Montreal police, saying "sufficient reinforcements to contain the escalating situation did not arrive until violence broke out."

Montreal police officials were not immediately available for comment.

The pro-Palestinian groups that organized the demonstration also came under fire in Concordia's report. Lowy said the groups had planned to shut down Netanyahu's speech from the very beginning.

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, one of the protest organizers, fired back at Concordia, saying over-zealous riot police and the university's lax security measures were responsible for the violence.

"It's kind of hypocritical," said Laith Marouf, a member of the group and a Concordia student.

"The responsibility of what happened Sept. 9 lies solely on the administration and the lobbyists that wanted to turn our campus into a war-criminal-safe zone."

Prior to the speech, protesters had said they hoped to prevent Netanyahu from speaking and that they would resort to civil disobedience to achieve that objective.

Lowy said that over the next few weeks, Concordia would establish guidelines governing campus events, in an attempt to balance free speech and security.
He said anyone who breaks the rules will be punished, but he couldn't say what the guidelines would be or how they would be applied.

Twelve student protesters are charged with violating the university's code of rights. They'll appear before hearings at the university next week.

Concordia imposed a lengthy moratorium on all Mideast-related events after the protests. The ban was lifted several weeks later.

David Birnbaum, executive director for the Canadian Jewish Congress in Quebec, said Concordia has taken too soft a stance on the protesters.

"We are a little surprised not to read anything specific, clear and determined in today's announcement about giving this university back to all of its students," Birnbaum said in an interview.

"Our community, for one, is getting impatient with the university."