After American universities, it is McGill’s turn to be the site of a camp established by pro-Palestine students. Around twenty tents were erected on the university campus, surrounded by more than a hundred demonstrators from McGill and Concordia.
“Divestment now!” » chanted a hundred demonstrators to the sound of drums, Saturday afternoon, on the campus of McGill University. The atmosphere was friendly, with several families and young children 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 demonstration, announced on X by the SPHR groups from McGill and Concordia, began around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
“It’s full of hope today,” commented Lara Al Barazih, who joined the demonstration early in the afternoon with her 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.
Security officers are on scene, according to McGill.
“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 university said in an email, adding however that it has “the duty to create a respectful environment, conducive to the execution of our university mission, in which our community is protected from any attack on its health and safety”.