Looking back

Professor Steven Maynard ('85) has been teaching at the Queen's University History Department for 10 years.

A classroom discussion about a Anti-Racism Rally became a trip down memory lane for professor Steven Maynard. When some students made comments about expecting more fist-pumping from the rally crowd, Maynard said students back in his university days would have made a bigger fuss.

In fact, he was arrested for being one of those students. Back in Maynard’s university days at Mount A, he was working towards becoming a historian, but was also quite the activist.

In his 20s Maynard was arrested for standing up against pharmaceutical companies during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

“The pharmaceutical companies were taking far too long to release their life-saving drugs, while many people—our friends—were dying of AIDS,” he said.

For Maynard, getting arrested wasn’t a setback. “Sometimes in activism, you have to create a spectacle in order to get attention and make something happen.”

Maynard got quite a bit of media attention and a picture of the arrest appeared in newspapers.

Maynard said describing university students today as apathetic is too glib. He said he realizes there are students trying to create social change, but they need to do more.

“Get out there and do something splashy. Make some waves.”