Pro-Palestinian camp | UQAM in turn turns to the courts

UQAM in turn turned to the courts to try to dismantle parts of the pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the lawn of the Pierre-Dansereau Science Complex. The establishment announced Thursday the filing of an injunction, as did McGill University for the first time, but in vain.

“Despite repeated requests from UQAM, and despite the meeting held on May 17 by rector Stéphane Pallage with representatives of the camp, the University’s efforts did not yield the expected results,” indicates the management in a press release.

According to the rectorate, which affirms that the decision was taken in order to “ensure the health and safety of the university community”, the procedures will aim to issue orders for provisional interlocutory injunction, interlocutory injunction and permanent injunction.

UQAM thus wishes to “allow access, exit and free movement to buildings”, but also “to stop any gesture or behavior leading directly or indirectly to the degradation or deterioration of property”, which includes “vandalism, removal of property, theft of property, alteration of property or destruction of property,” we note.

All this comes less than two weeks after McGill University filed an injunction, which was refused by the Court. Since then, the management of the establishment has announced that it will resubmit a new one.

The last few days have been tense around the camp called “Al-Aqsa Popular University”, on the grounds of UQAM. According to our information, the police force has just been doubled around the scene, from around ten to around twenty police officers.

Tension rose a notch on Monday when demonstrators temporarily blocked an intersection in the area of ​​avenue du Président-Kennedy and rue Saint-Urbain, very close to the headquarters of the Police Department of the City of Montreal (SPVM). Violent clashes took place between police and demonstrators, whose interpretation of the sequence of events is conflicting.

Not the whole camp, necessarily

Unlike McGill, UQAM affirms that it is not necessarily asking the Court “to order the complete dismantling of the encampment”. That said, “access and emergency exits from University buildings are still obstructed, several exterior protection cameras are obstructed, and the situation on the camp and near it has generally deteriorated,” worries the establishment.

What’s more, the camp “is increasingly barricaded, certain materials which have been accumulated there present risks, surfaces of certain pavilions have been vandalized, in particular by several graffiti, and hooded groups circulate there night and day”, we add.

Finally, the place “is not only made up of UQAM students, with whom the University could find solutions, but other people or groups are probably installed there”.

In a statement, Rector Stéphane Pallage reiterated Thursday that “the University does not currently have institutional ties with Israeli universities.” “We are open to examining with our students other avenues that could be consensual, for example welcoming Palestinian academics affected by the conflict, as part of the Scholars at Risk network that UQAM joined in 2017,” he said.

“I understand the anger, the indignation, the despair, the mourning of Palestinians and Israelis. War polarizes society. I do not want it to divide our community,” he concluded.

At the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA), which has opposed the existence of these camps from the start, Vice-President Eta Yudin offered her support to UQAM on Thursday, affirming that action must be taken quickly “so that law and order returns to downtown Montreal.”