U of T tells protestors they won't be removed - yet

The University of Toronto told pro-Palestinian pro‐ testers who set up an en‐ campment in the heart of the downtown campus on Thursday that they can stay - for now.

Earlier in the day, protest‐ ers had called on community members to join them, as the school has warned they must leave by 10 p.m.

As of 8 p.m., multiple police vehicles were seen parked on the campus just north of the encampment.

At 9:30 p.m., the univer‐ sity released a statement telling protestors, "if your ac‐ tivities remain peaceful, we do not intend to remove you from campus this evening."

"Our concerns about safety are increasing," said vice-provost Sandy Welsh in the statement.

"You will see higher num‐ bers of Campus Safety Speci‐ al Constables nearby," Welsh said. "We are aware that the Toronto Police Service is monitoring the protest. Please encourage others to remain peaceful ... Hate speech, threats, and other discriminatory language or behaviour do not constitute peaceful protest."

"We will not be leaving un‐ til we achieve divestment, disclosure, and an academic boycott of complicit Israeli universities," the group UOFT occupy for Palestine said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier on Thursday.

"We fully reject the school's attempt to deny us our constitutional right to peaceful assembly. UofT would rather threaten involv‐ ing police than address our calls for divestment from companies funding a geno‐ cide," it said.

The group erected dozens of tents overnight in the re‐ cently renovated King's Col‐ lege Circle. The area was pre‐ viously fenced off in anticipa‐ tion of convocation cere‐ monies set to take place in about a month, according to the university.

The move comes as stu‐ dents at universities throughout North America

have established their own protest encampments to de‐ mand an end to the ongoing war in Gaza.

A police spokesperson told CBC News that police are "aware of the demonstration, and will be present to ensure people remain lawful." She said that the university "has not requested TPS presence."

In a statement, student protestors at U of T said they are calling on the post-secon‐ dary institution to reveal a complete list of its endow‐ ment's investments and di‐ vest from assets that "sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine." They also deman‐ ded the school cut ties with Israeli academic institutions that operate within the occu‐ pied West Bank.

The students say the uni‐ versity's administration has ignored their concerns de‐ spite earlier demonstrations and attempts to engage.

"We're not looking for any empty words from the ad‐ ministration, we're not look‐ ing for any meetings that don't really get us anywhere," said Kalliopé Anvar McCall, a student participating in the demonstration. She said the encampment will remain un‐ til the demands are met "to the word."

"We're not leaving until we get that," she said.

WATCH | Student pro‐ testers, faculty members on the U of T encampment protest:

Student Erin Mackey said the protesters have plenty of provisions and are prepared to stay as long as necessary.

"We have lots of supplies here. There are students and faculty who are supporting this. We will be here, we will continue to be here, we will continue to make these de‐ mands until our university di‐ vests from Israeli apartheid," she told CBC Toronto.

A spokesperson for U of T said students could face con‐ sequences for their participa‐ tion in the protest.

"The university respects the rights of members of our community to assemble and protest within the limits of the law and U of T policies, but they must not interfere with the ability of students, faculty, librarians and staff to learn, teach, research and work on our campuses, or disrupt or impede other uni‐ versity activities," the spokesperson said.

"Our preference is to start with dialogue. Those who contravene university policy or the law risk the conse‐ quences set out in various laws and policies such as the code of student conduct, which could include suspen‐ sion," they continued.

Part of growing student movement

On Monday, administra‐ tors sent a campus-wide email warning students against trespassing on uni‐ versity property.

"U of T's lands and build‐ ings are private property, though the University allows wide public access to them for authorized activities. Unauthorized activities such as encampments or the oc‐ cupation of University build‐ ings are considered trespass‐ ing," the email said.

The encampment at U of T is just the latest to take root in Canada. Students at McGill University in Montreal, West‐ ern University in London, Ont., and the University of British Columbia in Vancou‐ ver have also established se‐ mi-permanent protest sites.

The student movement began at Columbia University in New York City on April 17. That encampment was force‐ fully cleared by police at the request of administrators earlier this week. Meanwhile, police began taking down makeshift barricades at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Thursday af‐ ter violent clashes between protestors and counter-pro‐ testors.

Participants say they are trying to draw attention to the ongoing humanitarian situation Gaza, resulting from the Israeli military response to a deadly attack on Oct. 7 launched by Hamas and oth‐ er militants.

About 1,200 people were killed on Oct. 7, including sev‐ eral Canadians, while some 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli government tallies. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

The International Court of Justice is investigating whether Israel has commit‐ ted acts of genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza, with any ruling expected to take years. Israel has rejected alle‐ gations of wrongdoing and accused the court of bias.

Israeli officials have stren‐ uously denied accusations of genocide, saying the military campaign in Gaza has only targeted Hamas. They have also long denied any official Israeli policies toward Gaza amount to apartheid.

Group of faculty backs protest

A group of U of T faculty issued a lengthy statement in support of the student en‐ campment Thursday morn‐ ing.

"University students must be allowed to protest one of the central humanitarian crises of our time without fear of disciplinary mea‐ sures," the statement said. It also urged against any police intervention to clear the demonstration site.

The statement was signed by the U of T chapters of the Jewish Faculty Network, Fac‐ ulty for Palestine and Health workers Alliance for Pales‐ tine.

Alejandro Paz, an asso‐ ciate professor of anthro‐ pology and a member of the steering committee for the Jewish Faculty Network, said that while administrators have made overtures to pre‐ vious student demonstra‐ tions related to the IsraelHamas war, it has failed to take any concrete steps to‐ ward meeting their demands.

"I think the encampment has been set up because the administration has not lis‐ tened to students, students who feel very aggrieved by what is happening in Gaza and the genocidal war the Is‐ raeli state is waging on the Palestinian people," Paz said.

"They've been trying to get the university's attention for several months, and the university's administration has simply ignored them or pushed them off."

Mackey, who is with the group U of T Occupy for Palestine, said students had occupied a building outside the university president's of‐ fice a few weeks ago and eventually were able to meet with him but were not satis‐ fied with the outcome of that discussion.

"I have spent four years here and spent a lot of mon‐ ey on tuition and I'm graduat‐ ing, which is really exciting. But ... there are many, many students who are just like me (in Gaza) who should be graduating and celebrating, but unfortunately they are unable to do so," Mackey said.

However, Rabbi Seth Goren, the CEO of Hillel On‐ tario, a group that advocates on behalf of Jewish students, said the organization is con‐ cerned some protests in the United States have been the "catalyst" for violence.

"Our concern is that this will escalate here," he said, speaking to reporters on campus.

WATCH | Jewish students must be able to participate on campus, advocate says:

Across the province, he said Jewish students have re‐ ported mezuzahs - ritual ob‐ jects attached to doorposts ripped off dorm rooms and smashed in hallways, and bricks being thrown in win‐ dows.

"These things are becom‐ ing commonplace," he said.

The protest has led to space at the university being "cordoned off" from normal public access, with protesters managing who can access the area, said Goren. This is "in and of itself" a way of pre‐ cluding Jewish students from using campus facilities, he added.

He's calling for the school to enforce the policies it has in place.

"The people who are re‐ fusing to adhere to university regulations and policies are the people who are the insti‐ gators, not the police and not security forces who are sim‐ ply trying to ensure that the university's policies and pro‐ cedures are upheld," he said.