The rector of McGill University, Deep Saini, is exasperated by the inaction of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), which has so far refused to intervene to dismantle the pro-Palestine encampment erected on the grounds of the establishment at the end of last month. He claims that acts that he associates with “intimidation” and “harassment” occurred as part of this mobilization without the police intervening.
As McGill graduates celebrate this week at the Bell Center the culmination of their academic journey as part of a series of convocations, Rector Deep Saini wrote a long message this Wednesday intended “to members of the community mcgilloise” in order to take stock of the camp set up on the university grounds at the end of last month. It was then the first pro-Palestinian encampment to emerge on a Canadian campus. Protesters are calling on McGill University to cut its ties — financial and academic — with Israel. Several other installations with similar requests have also emerged elsewhere in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
The rector of McGill is, however, exasperated by this mobilization, and affirms that problematic actions have been taken in recent weeks. “Intimidation, harassment and discrimination on our campus are unacceptable, regardless of the circumstances and geopolitical motivations,” he wrote, while deploring that the meetings which took place between management and representatives of the encampment did not reach an agreement.
McGill University has so far refused to commit to completely stopping investing in companies that supply weapons to Israel, as protesters are demanding, and to cutting its ties with Israeli universities.
“Since then, camper sympathizers have resorted to unacceptable tactics that directly clash with the values and principles of respect that drive almost all members of our university community,” continues Rector Saini.
In his long message, the rector notably returns to an event that occurred last Sunday during which a portrait of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was hung at the Roddick Portal, the main entrance to the McGill University campus in downtown Montreal. . The portrait, a photo of which has circulated on social networks in recent days, showed the politician “dressed in a striped garment reminiscent of a prison uniform”.
“This garment was reminiscent of the uniform that the millions of Jews and other marginalized people who suffered and died in concentration camps during World War II were forced to wear,” continues Deep Saini. The latter indicates that he then reported this incident to the SPVM, who “attended the event without intervening”.
“Such an attitude dismays us, and we have asked the SPVM to take all measures authorized by law,” insists Deep Saini, who also warns that McGill will itself sanction the people responsible for this act if it finds that they these “are part of the McGill community”.
Not an “isolated” event
Deep Saini also affirms that the event which occurred last Sunday was not an “isolated incident”. He lists the cases where, in recent weeks, demonstrators have gone to the residence of members of senior management at McGill to denounce the links that the establishment maintains with Israel. “You cannot hide,” protesters chanted, said the rector of McGill.
“In addition, we have seen other graffiti and posters on campus containing comments very close to discrimination and, in some cases, discriminatory,” adds Mr. Saini, who affirms that these gestures “are intended to threaten , to coerce and create fear”, which is “completely unacceptable”.
“We reported each of these incidents to the police and asked them to take action,” adds Mr. Saini.
Joined by The duty, the SPVM had not commented at the time these lines were written. The McGill association Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), which is behind this encampment, also did not respond to our interview requests.
In mid-May, McGill University suffered a setback in Superior Court, to which the establishment had turned to try to obtain the dismantling of this encampment. Deep Saini now hopes to resolve this issue by reaching a mutual agreement with the demonstrators, as the University of Quebec in Montreal managed to do.
“I invite members of the McGill community to take a close look at the offers that led students from other universities to peacefully end their encampment, and then compare them to ours,” Mr. Saini wrote. The university notably proposes to establish “new links” with Palestinian researchers, as well as with establishments located in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in addition to “providing emergency support to displaced students and researchers” , specifies the rector.
McGill also undertakes, if this encampment is dismantled, to publish the list of companies in which it has stock holdings of less than $500,000, the information for investments greater than this sum being already accessible.