Members of the pro-Palestine camp which has grown in recent days on the grounds of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) were injured Monday afternoon as part of a muscular police intervention aimed at put an end to a peaceful demonstration in the heart of the metropolis.
Sergio, a Concordia University student who was among the members of the encampment set up on May 12 near the Pierre-Dansereau Science Complex at UQAM, is one of the students who were injured Monday as part of this police intervention. The young man, met on Tuesday in front of the site of this occupation, requested anonymity for security reasons, as did the three other students contacted for this report.
“They hit us when we were on the ground. They didn’t let people back down. All they were looking for was violence,” says Sergio, who was injured in the nose and received several blows to the stomach as part of this police operation.
By email, the SPVM confirmed having intervened in the area on Monday after “barricades” were set up around 3:30 p.m. “in order to block avenue du Président-Kennedy and boulevard de Maisonneuve, between rue Jeanne-Mance and rue Saint -Urban, in the district of Ville-Marie”.
“When the police intervened on the scene to disperse the demonstrators, the latter rushed towards the police, attacking them with various objects and it was at this moment that chemical irritants had to be used and the police had to have resorted to their sticks to repel the demonstrators,” continues the police force. The latter was subsequently able to “clear the traffic lanes” which had been blocked as part of this mobilization.
Videos of the event circulating on social media show dozens of riot police advancing straight towards demonstrators who had opened umbrellas in front of them to protect themselves. These videos show police officers attacking demonstrators on the ground and firing tear gas canisters to disperse them.
However, it was a mobilization that was initially intended to be “festive” and “peaceful”, in the opinion of a UQAM student who condemns the police intervention that took place to put an end to this gathering, to which he assisted. “The police used their baton, pepper [de Cayenne] and tear gas over a long distance; they pushed the people from rue Saint-Urbain all the way here,” says this student, who affirms that “several campers were injured” as part of this operation.
“There was a lot of bludgeoning. The police threw bullets directly at the demonstrators using their rifles which fired tear gas,” adds another UQAM student met on Tuesday. “People have received it on the chest, on the legs and in the face,” he lists.
Questioned by The dutythe SPVM refused to indicate whether people were arrested as part of this police intervention “in order to prevent any influence on a possible judicial, ethical or disciplinary process”.
“Our priority is to avoid escalations of violence. Clashes and violence are not what Montreal is all about,” responded the office of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who recalled that “everyone has the right to demonstrate peacefully.”
The mayor, however, asks the members of this camp to “maintain the dialogue” with their university. “Exchanges must continue calmly to preserve the peace that distinguishes Montreal. »
UQAM had not reacted to this police intervention at the time these lines were written.
A growing camp
The police presence was also significant on Tuesday around this camp, which now has several dozen tents surrounded by fences. Several boards were also installed Monday in front of the entrance to the encampment, where a few demonstrators were sipping coffee under the watchful eye of police officers traveling on foot and by car in the surrounding area.
In recent days, discussions have taken place between the management of UQAM and representatives of the camp, who are asking Quebec universities to commit not to maintain academic ties with Israel. As part of these exchanges, the university particularly deplored that this encampment blocked access to some of its buildings, which prompted the demonstrators to take measures to reduce the number of doors blocked by this peaceful occupation.
“They will find anything to criminalize us, but we still have to do something for Rafah,” says Sergio, referring to this town in the south of the Gaza Strip where Israel is carrying out a military operation condemned in particular by the United Nations and the European Union.