(Toronto) Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Toronto said they will comply with a court order requiring them to dismantle their encampment and leave the site by 6 p.m.
At a press conference this afternoon, organizers said they were leaving voluntarily to avoid police intervention.
Protesters dismantled tents and tarps throughout the day, and none remained by late afternoon.
An Ontario judge issued an injunction against the encampment on Tuesday, authorizing police to move in if protesters do not leave by 6 p.m. Wednesday. Police said they would enforce the order but would not disclose any operational plans.
Toronto police officers were seen posting the court order on the camp fence Wednesday morning, as Palestinian flags flew overhead. Police issued a statement around noon calling on protesters to leave voluntarily to “ensure a safe exit for everyone.”
PHOTO CHRIS YOUNG, THE CANADIAN PRESS
The protesters set up camp on May 2 and have previously said they will remain there until the university accepts their demands, which include divestment from companies profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
An Irish rebel chant echoed at the entrance to the camp as protesters hauled supplies in carts and patches of yellowed grass dotted the lawn where tents once stood.
To avoid chaos
Ontario Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen ruled that while there was no evidence that the encampment participants were violent or anti-Semitic, the protest deprived the university of its ability to control what happened in the area.
Judge Koehnen argued that landowners generally decide what happens on their property, and if protesters can seize that power, there is nothing to stop a stronger group from coming in and taking over the space of the current protesters.
He said this could have led to chaos, so he gave the police the power to arrest and expel anyone who knew about the order and disobeyed it.
PHOTO ARLYN MCADOREY, REUTERS
Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities said postsecondary institutions have “an obligation to protect the safety and well-being of students, faculty and staff so that students can continue to learn without interruption.”
“Like any court order, this one must be complied with to ensure that this happens,” Minister Jill Dunlop’s statement read.
The protesters set up camp on May 2 and have previously said they will remain there until the university accepts their demands, which include divestment from companies profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The court’s decision notes that the university has procedures in place to review divestment requests and offered protesters an expedited process.
Protesters, however, said they have no faith in the process because it relies on recommendations to the university president that he can either follow or ignore. They note that Meric Gertler refused to follow a 2016 recommendation to divest from fossil fuels, only to launch his own process years later that could result in divestment by 2030, 16 years after the request was made.
“The protesters argue that Gaza does not have 16 years to wait,” Tuesday’s court ruling read.
The university initially sought a temporary injunction against the encampment in late May because it is near Convocation Hall, where graduation ceremonies were scheduled to take place for several weeks in June. The court ended up hearing arguments over two days last month, when most of the ceremonies were nearly over.
No major disruptions were reported.
“Depriving our fellow citizens of green spaces serves no purpose”
The judge ruled Tuesday that, “as passionate as the protesters may be,” they do not have the unilateral right to decide how campus green space can be used through their exercise of “force, occupation or intimidation.”
“If the property is truly a quasi-public space, why should an ad hoc group of people determine who can use that space for a period of more than 50 days?”
“As passionate as we are about alleviating human suffering around the world, depriving our fellow citizens of green space serves no purpose,” the judge wrote.
He rejected, however, allegations that the camp’s protesters had circulated anti-Semitic hate speech and slogans, accusations regularly leveled against the group by pro-Israel organizations that have sought to undermine the demonstration.
Although the judge noted that some of the comments from “outside the camp” were hate speech, none of the protesters in the camp had been linked to those comments and they had in fact taken steps to remove the offensive messages near the camp when they appeared.
The judge, however, cited several examples of protesters who had themselves been the subject of hateful comments.
He concluded that the encampment was peaceful and cited testimony from protesters who described it as an inclusive and caring community where Muslims and Jews co-led Shabbat dinners and shared prayer.
The protesters argued that an injunction was a major infringement of their right to freedom of expression and stressed that universities were a key space for protest and debate. However, the judge ruled that there was no right to occupy property that did not belong to them.