(Nanaimo) A months-long pro-Palestinian encampment at Vancouver Island University has been dismantled following a court order.
Protesters had until 9:30 a.m. Sunday to vacate a grassy area on the university’s campus in Nanaimo, B.C., after the province’s Supreme Court granted the university an injunction last week.
In a video statement posted to the protest group’s Instagram account, an unidentified demonstrator said people in “hazard suits” arrived when the injunction took effect and began dismantling the encampment, which had been in place for 110 days.
The encampment was one of several that have sprung up on campuses in Canada and the United States in response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with participants demanding that universities cut financial and academic ties with companies and institutions linked to Israel.
The protester said in the video that the protesters have to live with the fact that the university went to court to expel the students rather than listen to their concerns.
They added, however, that they were still considering “other forms of protest.”
The university has yet to respond to Sunday’s events. However, the institution released a statement last week saying that while it respects the right to peaceful protest, the court order ensures that the campus is returned to the community and “prevents any individual group from occupying a shared space for extended periods of time to promote a single perspective.”
The court ordered that no further encampments be established in the same specific area for 150 days.
Similar protest encampments in British Columbia were cleared this summer at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.
Vancouver Island University has taken legal action against the protesters after they issued a trespass notice on July 11, which the university says was ignored.
She took the case to court following an Ontario decision that granted the University of Toronto an injunction against an encampment on property rights grounds.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which intervened in the B.C. case, argued that the court must consider the effects of an injunction on protesters’ Charter rights, even if the encampment is on private property.
The organization released a statement last week saying it was pleased the court found the measures initially sought by the university were “overbroad,” although the judge also found that the protesters’ charter rights did not infringe on the university’s property rights.
The association said it was increasingly concerned about injunctions being used to restrict protest rights.