After American universities, it is McGill’s turn to be taken over by pro-Palestine students. Around twenty tents were set up on the establishment’s campus, surrounded by more than a hundred demonstrators, including students from McGill and Concordia.
“Divestment now!” “, chanted the demonstrators to the sound of drums, Saturday afternoon, on the campus of McGill University. The atmosphere was friendly and several families with young children were present.
“The students organized this encampment to protest against the complicity of McGill and Concordia in the occupation and genocide in Gaza,” explained to The Press a representative of the McGill organization Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), according to whom the demonstration brought together nearly a thousand people at its peak.
The event, announced on X by the SPHR groups from McGill and Concordia, began around 1 p.m. Behind barricades plastered with slogans, a camp of around twenty tents was set up, and many demonstrators were still standing chanting slogans around 6 p.m.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Camp in front of McGill University
The students plan to camp at the site until their demands are heard. “ [McGill] sent us an email [samedi] morning to try to intimidate us,” said the representative of the SPHR of this university, according to whom the students nevertheless remain “unshakeable and committed”.
“We’re just following the wave”
“It’s full of hope today,” commented Lara Al Barazih, who arrived at the demonstration early in the afternoon with friends. “We expected this movement, with everything that is happening in the United States. We’re just following the wave,” added the young woman, who said she was thinking of joining the camp later.
Former Québec Solidaire spokesperson Amir Khadir mingled with the crowd in the middle of the afternoon. “I am convinced that Mélanie Joly and Justin Trudeau are really concerned about what is happening to the Palestinian people,” he stressed, denouncing, however, the “complicity” of Western governments with Israel.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Amir Khadir speaks with demonstrators.
Mr. Khadir called on Canadian leaders to stop arms sales to Israel. “We need not just a cessation of hostilities, not just a ceasefire, we need a lasting solution,” he added.
“As a child of parents who lived through the Lebanese civil war, which was caused by interference from the West and Israel, I believe it is important to stand in solidarity with all people in the Middle East. -Orient,” commented a protester who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions on her job.
According to the young woman, it was only a matter of time before a pro-Palestine camp was established on the campus of a Montreal university. “I was waiting for this to happen,” she added.
No police intervention
Security guards were on scene, according to McGill.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“We recognize that our university community has the right to exercise its freedom of expression and assembly within the limits provided by University policies and the law,” the establishment said in an email.
Agents from the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) were deployed around the campus “to ensure the safety of people and traffic in the surrounding area,” said Jean-Pierre Brabant, spokesperson for the SPVM, on Saturday, according to whom McGill would not have requested police intervention. “For the moment, everything is going well with the demonstration,” added the spokesperson.
McGill, however, recalled that it has “the duty to create a respectful environment, conducive to the execution of [sa] university mission, in which [sa] community is protected from any attack on its health and safety.
A movement that is growing
The protest encampment established at McGill is part of a larger movement of pro-Palestine demonstrations, which began at Columbia University in New York.
On April 17, student protesters set up a dozen tents on the campus of the prestigious university, demanding that Columbia withdraw its investments in companies that benefit the military and the State of Israel.
The same day, the president of the university asked the New York police to dismantle the occupation camp. This intervention, which led to the arrest of around a hundred students, also galvanized the protest movement against the war in Gaza in the United States.
The Columbia encampment reappeared a few days later, and the anger spread to numerous campuses such as those of Harvard, Yale, Emerson and the University of California at Berkeley, where tents also sprung up and where hundreds other arrests took place.
With Agence France-Presse