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At least three people were arrested Wednesday afternoon as pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Montreal police inside the Guy-Concordia métro station.
The protest, one of several planned across Canadian universities, quickly escalated, leading to confrontations.
Tensions flared when some protesters began throwing objects, including paper and at least one drink, at officers.
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Protesters chanted “shame, shame” and “no justice, no peace” as police handcuffed at least two protesters outside a bakery in the métro station. Officers were heard saying the arrests were for mischief.
As the crowd grew, protesters surrounded about a dozen police officers. The officers and two people in handcuffs retreated into a room in the station.
After most of the protesters dispersed, the officers re-emerged, escorting a man and a woman in handcuffs to waiting police cars. Another protester, also handcuffed, was seen being placed into a squad car a block away.
During the confrontation, Concordia University security officers closed the tunnel linking the métro station to the school’s library building.
Other protesters blocked de Maisonneuve Blvd. in front of the university, marching and chanting “free, free Palestine.”
Protesters also streamed into Concordia’s John Molson School of Business.
Concordia briefly shut down access to its buildings on the downtown campus Wednesday afternoon.
In the basement of the university’s J.W. McConnell Building, graffiti accusing Israel of genocide and implicating Concordia in the Israel-Hamas War was spray-painted on the walls.
A student was later seen tearing down flyers that alleged the university had “blood on its hands.”
Protests in support of the Palestinian people were planned for several universities across the country Wednesday afternoon.
Last week, McGill University said it had asked Montreal police to investigate after its downtown campus was hit by antisemitic graffiti and “intimidation.”
Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry has said she’s worried tensions will boil over on Quebec university campuses in the run-up to the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the beginning of Israel’s retaliation.
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