The court will not intervene in the dispute concerning the campus of McGill University, where a protest camp has been set up for several days. Judge Chantal Masse of the Superior Court on Wednesday rejected the request for an injunction which sought to limit the space in which demonstrators who denounce what is happening in Gaza, in Palestine, could be located.
The request for a temporary injunction was filed Tuesday and argued the same day.
These are two students who mandated a lawyer to obtain a court order which would prohibit pro-Palestinian militant groups from being less than 100 meters from the entrances to the buildings of the university campus located in the city center of the metropolis. They also requested that these demonstrators be ordered not to intimidate students and staff and not to create a hostile environment that would prevent them from having safe access to buildings.
Lawyers for the targeted pressure groups had argued that it was a peaceful mobilization. This does not prevent students from entering campus buildings, none of the entrances of which are blocked by this mobilization, it was noted The duty during several visits to the site since Sunday.
Joined by The duty, the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) reiterated its desire to obtain a peaceful outcome in this matter. A spokesperson also confirmed that no criminal act has been reported in the context of this encampment.
The SPVM was slow to respond in recent days to a call from senior management at McGill, who asked law enforcement to intervene to put an end to this encampment. However, “to threaten to use force and violence to silence legitimate demands like that is absolutely deplorable,” commented Wednesday morning Jérôme Charaoui, a Montrealer who came to offer food to the demonstrators, who are beginning their fifth day of occupation.
“The genocide which has now lasted six months in Gaza is absolutely horrific, and simply as a human being in solidarity with this suffering, I think it is very important to come in solidarity, to support the students who stand up against this and who also express very clear demands regarding their university,” continued Mr. Charaoui.
The professor at the School of Nursing at McGill University, Amanda Cervantes, met near this encampment on Wednesday, deplores the tone of “threat” which, according to her, emerged from the latest communications from McGill concerning this mobilization. “I’m afraid for them,” she whispered, referring to the demonstrators.
More details will follow.