Updated: Most pro-Palestinian protesters have left McGill encampment

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Tap here for live updates to this story July 10, 2024.

McGill University is dismantling the pro-Palestinian encampment that has been on its downtown Montreal campus since April 27.

SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said the force had been informed by McGill University that it would be dismantling the encampment. Police were stationed off-campus on Sherbrooke St. to ensure “safety for everyone.” Sherbrooke St. was closed between Peel and University Sts. Several businesses on Sherbrooke St., including a coffee shop and a restaurant, were closed.

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Police and private security arrived at the camp at around 4.30 am, according to encampment representative and McGill student Zaina Karim.

Security agents warned protesters they would be arrested if they remained on site. Many left, but around six six protesters remained by noon.

“People tried to remain at camp and they were forcefully escorted out even though they wanted to remain,” Karim said. The protesters were prepared for the encampment’s clearing, which came as “no surprise,” according to Karim.

“McGill has expressed since the beginning of the encampment that they do not agree with encampment. They’ve never had conversations in good faith with the students there. They’ve continuously called the police to brutalize their own students. So this comes as no surprise, so the students here were prepared for such an event.”

Scott Weinstein, a spokesperson for Independent Jewish Voices, had arrived at the encampment in the early morning. He said he was sad to see the encampment dismantled, but called it a “good run.”

“I’ve got to hand it to the students, they grew up really fast,” he said. “I was here when it really started … when there were just 20 people here and all of a sudden it just grew exponentially. And many of the students were idealistic but didn’t have experience in this type of political confrontation situation, and they didn’t back down. I give them credit. They were very brave.”

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He stayed despite threats of arrest because he said his future wouldn’t be jeopardized by a criminal record in the same way a young person’s might be.

By mid-morning, protesters had gathered up flags and personal belongings as employees of the private security firm, wearing yellow vests and hard hats, removed some of the fencing that has been in place since the encampment began. Some people walked in front of the encampment waving Palestinian flags.

An hour later, some of the fences had been removed and excavator trucks were clearing out the debris, loading it into two dump trucks parked on the campus.

Montreal police and SQ officers on Sherbrooke St. near the Roddick Gates held back a crowd of protesters who were pounding drums and chanting slogans calling for revolution.

A spokesperson for Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante referred The Gazette to McGill University and the SPVM when asked for comment.

A spokesperson for Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel also declined to comment “for the moment.” Last week, Bonnardel posted on X that he was surprised Montreal hadn’t done more “on the issue of encampments” and that his position was clear: Political leaders should denounce the occupation of public land.

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The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Federation CJA praised McGill for taking measures to “prioritize the safety and well being of the university community and to end the toxicity, the hateful glorification of terrorism and the targeting of Jewish students on the campus.”

The university said it is proceeding with the dismantling because the encampment represented “profound health and safety risks that continue to grow in scope and severity” and contended that the university had been “subject to ongoing and escalating acts of violence and vandalism associated with the encampment, up to and including criminal acts on campus last weekend.”

McGill president Deep Saini repeated the university’s position that it supported “the right to free expression and assembly, within the bounds of the laws and policies that keep us all safe.”

“However, recent events go far beyond peaceful protest and have inhibited the respectful exchange of views and ideas that is so essential to the university’s mission and to our sense of community.”

Saini accused “people linked to the camp” of having “harassed our community members, engaged in antisemitic intimidation, damaged and destroyed McGill property, forcefully occupied a building, clashed with police and committed acts of assault.”

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“They also hosted a ‘revolutionary youth summer program’ advertised with images of masked individuals holding assault rifles. The risks emanating from the camp have been escalating, steadily and dangerously.”

The university president said few people from the McGill community were in the encampment, that most protesters were activists from external groups and that unhoused people were also using the camp. He claimed there has been drug use and said the camp is infested with rats.

“This camp was not a peaceful protest,” Saini wrote. “It was a heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence, organized largely by individuals who are not part of our university community.”

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Wednesday’s dismantling operation came less than 12 hours after about a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a meeting of the Ville-Marie borough council. Mayor Valérie Plante and her fellow councillors were taken out of the meeting as a precaution. There were no arrests reported in connection with that incident.

Protesters have demanded that McGill end its investments in businesses that profited from Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip as well as end all affiliations with Israeli universities.

Two attempts to obtain injunctions forcing the dismantling of the encampment were rejected by Quebec Superior Court.

On June 6, protesters entered the James Administration building at the downtown campus and Montreal police made 15 arrests.

Other protest encampments in Quebec were dismantled after agreements were reached with the universities involved. Last week, a protest encampment erected on public property in Victoria Square was dismantled by Montreal police.

Presse Canadienne contributed to this report.

This story will be updated.

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