Updated: Pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill is illegal, Legault says

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For live updates from the encampment site on May 2, please tap here.

Premier François Legault said Thursday that police should move in and dismantle the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University.

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The protest, established on the downtown Montreal campus on Saturday, is illegal, he told reporters in Quebec City, but it is up to police to decide when and how to proceed.

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“Everybody in Quebec has to respect laws, and right now these encampments are illegal,” he said. “We have to respect the law. And I want to make sure that the police officers ensure the laws are respected.”

Legault cited Wednesday’s rejected injunction request in defending his call to have police remove protesters. “If you read the decision, they say clearly that (the encampment is) illegal,” Legault said.

Two McGill students had sought to have the protesters at the encampment moved further than 100 metres from any of the school’s buildings.

Legault added: “We’re all worried about what’s happening in Gaza. People can show their (position) in demonstrations — these are allowed, these are legal. But they cannot have encampments on a university site.”

As the encampment entered its sixth day Thursday, there was a visible police presence ahead of a planned counter-protest by pro-Israel groups. That protest, though loud on occasions, was, like the camp itself, peaceful.

Police have generally kept a low profile around the camp, usually with a single vehicle parked across the street.

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The counter-protest, organized by a coalition of Jewish groups to oppose what they call “Jew-hatred on campus,” began in earnest at about 12:40 p.m. with speakers calling for the immediate removal of the encampment.

McGill students have spoken of rising antisemitism on campuses but also a rise in political activity by Jewish students in response.

“Right now there is a Jewish awakening happening all over the world and McGill’s campus is no exception,” one former McGill student said to the crowd. “More and more Jewish students are waking up, tapping into their identity, tapping into their Judaism, tapping into their heritage. Jewish groups on campus are practically doubling in size.”

Reuben Poupko, a prominent Montreal rabbi, thanked Legault for his support of the removal of the encampment.

“As Mr. Legault said this morning, it’s time for police to move that encampment. McGill has given a green light. The police have been wonderful for us since October the 7th, but one more thing has to happen: that illegal encampment has to go.”

Drew, a Concordia student standing just outside McGill’s closed front gates, said he joined the counter-protest to call on McGill to end the encampment.

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“If I were to walk through this campus right now with my kippah, I don’t think I would be safe,” he said. “I genuinely do not think I would be safe, not because I have some views that are different, but because I’m Jewish.”

He added that although he attends Concordia, he goes regularly to Shabbat at McGill campus to pray, as do other Jewish students at Concordia.

There were about 200 Palestinian supporters on the campus. Police were keeping the two groups separate.

A small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews were also on campus. They oppose the creation of Israel on religious grounds and said they are upset that pro-Israel groups attempt to suggest that all Jews are pro-Israel.

Mayor Valérie Plante weighed in on the events writing on social media Thursday afternoon: “The right to express oneself and demonstrate is fundamental, but it is absolutely necessary to preserve Montreal’s peaceful character.”

Montreal police are “present in the McGill University sector to enforce this principle,” she continued. “Our metropolis values ​​peace, listening and inclusion. In Montreal, it is possible to express yourself while respecting rights and laws. We must all defend these common values.”

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City police spokesperson Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers were there to ensure the safety of encampment participants, counter-protesters and the public.

“We’re here for safety purposes,” he said in an interview. “We have intervention groups that will be ready if there’s any confrontation, but that’s not what we want at this point, we want a protest that’s going to be calm and done pacifically.”

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Police are continuing to analyze the situation, but have no plans to use force to dismantle the encampment, he said earlier Thursday.

“From the beginning, it’s been peaceful,” Brabant said of the encampment, adding that police have not conducted any interventions on the site since the camp was set up Saturday.

Communications between police and encampment organizers are going very well, Brabant said. He said police are in “constant communication with McGill University.”

Québec solidaire MNA Haroun Bouazzi, who represents Maurice-Richard riding in the island’s north end, said he was at the protest to support the protesting students who are demanding the university’s divest from investments in companies like Lockheed Martin, whose planes are being used to bomb Gaza.

Earlier this year, a Dutch court blocked the export of parts for F-35 planes to Israel over concerns the planes were being used to commit crimes against humanity, he said.

“The university is continuing to invest in this industry of war, so it’s important that students, activists, are able to protest peacefully against an ongoing genocide and condemn investments that are part of the apartheid system,” he said.

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Bouazzi criticized Legault’s call for police intervention, saying it was a peaceful protest. He pushed back against claims from counter-protesters that the encampment is antisemitic, saying he’d seen no sign of antisemitism. “There are people of the Jewish faith who are protesting on the side against the genocide, I understand that there are people who will use any argument to side with the genocide, which is that’s what it is, and that’s unfortunate,” he said.

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A few encampment participants came and went Thursday morning, while some were seen speaking with police. Chants and drumming continued sporadically over the course of the day in front of the fenced camp.

Across the street, the pro-Israel groups set up a large screen and showed a documentary about the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that left more than 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians. It was this attack that led to the Israeli counteroffensive that the encampment protesters at McGill and at university campuses across the United States and now Canada are protesting.

The Israeli military has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the ensuing war, mostly women and children, according local health officials in the Hamas-run territory.

Pro-Palestinian activists have pitched their tents on campuses across Canada as well in recent days, including encampments at the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Western University in London, Ont., and the University of British Columbia.

On Wednesday, McGill president Deep Saini, who has asked for police assistance to dismantle the camp, said he would organize a forum with participants if they dismantled the camp.

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However, a protest organizer told The Gazette that while they want to have a dialogue with McGill and other Montreal universities about investments linked to the Israeli state, they won’t accept leaving as a condition for those discussions.

“We’re not going to take a promise of a forum, of a discussion, of a potential divestment as a serious offer. We are here until we see a divestment,” Ari Nahman, a student at Concordia University and a spokesperson for camp organizers, said Wednesday evening.

Also on Wednesday, a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected a request from two McGill students who were seeking an injunction that would have required the camp to be dismantled.

Jacob Serebrin, Michelle Lalonde, Andy Riga and Katelyn Thomas contributed to this report.

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