A major operation is underway Wednesday morning at McGill University in downtown Montreal, as the university’s management has decided to dismantle the pro-Palestinian camp set up on its campus since the end of April.
“The encampment poses a growing threat to health and safety. Therefore, in the interest of protecting the university community and the integrity of our property, the decision has been made to dismantle the encampment on the lower grounds of the downtown campus,” McGill said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
Around 6 a.m., members of McGill’s Security Service began informing the protesters that they would have to leave. Officers from the Montreal Police Department were dispatched to the scene to provide support.
In order to dismantle the encampment, the university administration announced that the downtown campus would be closed for the day. Events scheduled for Wednesday are canceled and the university community is asked not to go to the site.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The camp on the McGill University campus last Saturday.
Summer classes that were scheduled to be held on campus will instead take place virtually. Libraries are closed.
The protesters set up camp in late April, following similar demonstrations on other college campuses across North America.
Participants demanded that the university end its investments in companies that profit from Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip and that management cut ties between McGill and Israeli universities.
On two occasions, requests for injunctions to force the dismantling of the camp were rejected by the Superior Court.
Tensions at the camp reached a peak on June 6, when protesters broke into the university’s administration building. Police moved in and arrested 15 people.
Negotiations took place between the camp organizers and McGill administration, during which the university proposed measures to meet some of the protesters’ demands, but the talks did not convince participants to dismantle the encampment.
Other camps set up elsewhere in Quebec have been dismantled by protesters following agreements with the universities concerned. Last week, the City of Montreal dismantled another camp that had been set up in Victoria Square.