McGill asks police for help as pro-Palestinian protesters dig in on 4th day of encampment
Despite rain, mud and the possibility of an injunction at the pro-Palestinian en‐ campment on McGill Uni‐ versity's downtown cam‐ pus Tuesday afternoon, protesters say their spirits remain high.
They say they're staying put until the university di‐ vests from companies with business interests in Israel.
Some of those camping out overnight spread soil to absorb rain, dug trenches and scooped water with plas‐ tic pitchers. Others handed out yellow ponchos and um‐ brellas to protesters support‐ ing them outside the gates. Dozens of people arrived to set up tarps and bring sup‐ plies including rain boots and food to the encampment.
Between chants like "rain or shine, we will stand up for Palestine," protesters blasted Arabic music and danced in the pouring rain.
On the fourth day of the encampment, police motor‐ cycles stood nearby and an injunction request from two students asking a judge to prevent groups from protesting near McGill build‐ ings wound its way through Quebec Superior Court.
Carl Bystram, a McGill stu‐ dent taking part in the protest, said the university should make more efforts to listen to the students.
"It's quite disgraceful of McGill to be calling the police on this encampment," he said. "They should be more open to negotiations with students."
Earlier Tuesday, university president Deep Saini said in a statement sent to students and staff that McGill was re‐ sorting to calling for police assistance because officials "failed to reach a resolution" with protesters.
Fabrice Labeau, McGill's vice-provost of student life and learning, spoke to CBC's As It Happens host Nil Köksal Tuesday evening, saying ad‐ ministrators had made sever‐ al attempts to reach out to the groups protesting.
"The McGill participants in the encampment would refuse to put forward pro‐ posals through their legal counsel to us in terms of when they would end the en‐ campment," Labeau said.
"We've seen an increase in the number of tents. We've seen the arrival of large num‐ bers of people from outside the McGill community. And we've also heard the reports of antisemitic rhetoric being used, and this is under inves‐ tigation on our end."
WARNING | This video contains distressing content:
On Sunday, the university said it was investigating a video published on social media that included what it said were antisemitic re‐ marks.
Tuesday, McGill shared the video with CBC News. The video lists McGill Univer‐ sity as its location and in‐ cludes protesters chanting "all the Zionists are racist, all the Zionists are the terror‐ ists," as well as "go back to Europe."
The video provided to CBC News contains the text "20 Ji‐ hadists against one Jewish Is‐ raeli student being told to go back to Europe."
CBC News has not inde‐ pendently verified the video's source, nor if the people in the video are part of the en‐ campment. The video is one of 27 included in the injunc‐ tion request on behalf of the two McGill students.
The encampment is one of dozens at universities across North America. Stu‐ dents at Columbia University in New York, where the first such encampment was es‐ tablished, have occupied a school building after the uni‐ versity threatened to sus‐ pend those taking part in the protest.
On Tuesday, the university began suspending students. Those at McGill say they're "prepared to keep each other safe" if police move in on the encampment.
Mara Thompson, an un‐ dergraduate student at McGill and a member of In‐ dependent Jewish Voices who has been sleeping at the en‐ campment since Saturday, said the camp had estab‐ lished a strict code of con‐ duct for participating protest‐
ers with rules banning hate‐ ful speech and discrimina‐ tion.
"We take this very serious‐ ly and make sure not to per‐ petuate antisemitism and Is‐ lamophobia," said Thomp‐ son, who is Jewish.
"Antisemitism is a real and threatening issue in the wor‐ ld, but conflating it with antiZionism, I think, confuses people and risks actually making it harder to recognize antisemitism when it does happen," she added.
Thompson said students from several other Montreal universities were also camp‐ ing at the protest and that it was never meant to be exclu‐ sive to McGill students. She pointed out that there is a long history of students con‐ testing McGill's financial in‐ vestments, like the antiapartheid boycott, divest and sanction movement in the 1980s and '90s and, more re‐ cently, the push for the uni‐ versity to divest from fossil fuels.
Alanna Thain, a McGill fac‐ ulty member in the English department, said she was at the encampment on Tuesday to support the students there. She said they weren't preventing access to build‐ ings, and encouraged admin‐ istrators to come speak to the students directly.
"It's really threatening to call the cops on an encamp‐ ment that's about conversa‐ tion, that's about peaceful, non-violent forms of protest," she said.
Injunction decision ex‐ pected Wednesday
Meanwhile, lawyer Neil Ober‐ man, who represents McGill students Gabriel Medve‐ dovsky and Raihaana Adira, is asking a judge for a provi‐ sional injunction against the encampment.
The injunction request was argued at the Montreal courthouse Tuesday after‐ noon. McGill University is named as an interested party in the case.
The plaintiffs called for five pro-Palestinian groups to be prevented from taking protest actions within 100 metres of McGill property.
Superior Court Justice Chantal Massé said she would make her decision on the injunction request known on Wednesday.
WATCH | CBC's Rowan Kennedy reporting from the encampment Tuesday morning:
The plaintiffs allege the groups have "created an en‐ vironment of hate on cam‐ pus," which they say has made them uncomfortable to attend classes and exams.
They also allege they have faced harassment and intimi‐ dation from the defendants.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Sarah Shamy, a spokesperson for the Pales‐ tinian Youth Movement Mon‐ treal, said "this is part of a larger pattern where Zionists have used bureaucratic mechanisms and legal mech‐ anisms to suppress Palestin‐ ian activism." She stresses that the protests have re‐ mained peaceful.
In a statement, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill said they "organized this encampment under the context of an ongoing sixmonth-old genocide which has killed over 40,000 Pales‐ tinians" and "are planning on staying until our demands are heeded."
On Tuesday morning, a Montreal police spokesper‐ son said "no crime is being committed" at the encamp‐ ment and the situation is a civil matter. The spokesper‐ son said officers will continue to monitor the demonstra‐ tion and are ready to enforce a court injunction if it is granted.
Izik Hesselink, a Concordia University student, brought supplies to the McGill en‐ campment Tuesday. He said the nearby police presence was disconcerting, but had also solidified the group's re‐ solve.
"I just hope this continues across the nation and that other student activists and groups can come together, and make their voice heard because it's vital and compla‐ cency is the antithesis of what we're trying to do here," Hesselink said.