McGill requests ‘police assistance’ removing pro-Palestinian encampment
Video shows chants of ‘go back to Europe’ and ‘all Zionists are racist’ Pro-Palestinian activists at their encampment on the McGill University campus Tuesday.
McGill University says that after pro-Palestinian activists refused its request to pack up their tents and leave its downtown Montreal campus, it has requested police assistance to have the protesters removed.
“Police representatives, who have expertise in skilfully resolving situations such as these, have now started their own process,” the university said in a statement Tuesday. “We continue to work with them to resolve the matter.”
Montreal police spokeswoman Véronique Dubuc said Tuesday the force has received McGill’s request to dismantle the dozens of tents on the front lawn of its campus and is evaluating “different avenues” to respond.
The encampment, which was erected on the weekend just ahead of the end of final exams at McGill, follows a wave of similar protests linked to the Israel-Hamas war on campuses across the United States.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have also set up an encampment at the University of British Columbia’s Point Grey Campus, while the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa have both warned that encampments on campus will not be tolerated.
A lawyer representing two McGill students was in Quebec Superior Court Tuesday afternoon arguing for an injunction against the protesters.
The students are asking a judge to order the creation of a “restricted area” that would prevent five pro-Palestinian groups from protesting within 100 metres of a number of McGill buildings, according to court documents.
The plaintiffs, who are asking the court to seal their identities because they fear for their safety, allege the encampment “creates a dangerous, hostile, aggressive and violent environment.”
Activists at McGill have said they have no intention of dismantling their tents until the school, as well as nearby Concordia University, divest from all companies that protesters claim are “profiting from genocide.”
McGill has said many of the activists, if not the majority, are not members of the school community and that it had seen video of some people using “unequivocally antisemitic language and intimidating behaviour.”
The university forwarded The Canadian Press a link to a video on X, formerly Twitter, that shows protesters on the McGill campus, some masked, chanting “go back to Europe” and “all Zionists are racist.” When someone in the video responds that his family is from Iraq, one masked person responds, “go back to Iraq then.”