Montreal·Breaking
The police operation began around 5 a.m., when police wearing helmets and carrying shields and some on horseback surrounded the square. They approached the encampment and removed about 15 people who appeared to have been sleeping there.
Police moved in on the camp, saying it was illegal
Montreal police in riot gear began clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment in Victoria Square early Friday morning.
The police operation began around 5 a.m., when police wearing helmets and carrying shields and some on horseback surrounded the square.
About 15 protesters emerged from their tents, some of them carrying sleeping bags. The operation appeared to take place peacefully and in relative calm.
Montreal police called the encampment illegal and said they were enforcing city bylaws.
The Victoria Square encampment appeared on June 22. Protesters there wanted Quebec’s public pension fund manager, the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) to divest from 87 companies with ties to Israel.
The operation stood in stark contrast to the police response to an encampment at McGill University’s downtown campus, where student groups are camping in protest of the university’s investments in weapons companies and companies with ties to Israel.
Two Quebec Superior Court judges have so far rejected provisional injunctions to have the encampment removed and police have said they will not act against it until they receive judicial authorization.
More to come.
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With files from Rowan Kennedy