Protesters at a pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University say they aren’t going anywhere.
Shortly before 4 p.m., a man with a bullhorn who says he is with McGill told the protesters they “have no right to be here” and would have to leave the area. Protesters were handed pamphlets telling them to disperse immediately with all their belongings.
The man returned to give a “final warning” and said the university would “consider other options” if protesters don’t comply, including calling the police.
CBC News has reached out to the university for more information about the demand, but has not yet heard back.
University officials said earlier Monday that the number of tents at the encampment on McGill University’s downtown Montreal campus had tripled since Saturday.
The protesters set up about 20 tents Saturday afternoon with the intent of staying on McGill University’s lower field “indefinitely.” They joined a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations held on campuses across the U.S. who want to see universities divest from companies with business ties to Israel.
In a statement published Monday, the university’s media relations office said the situation with protesters on campus had “shifted significantly.”
“We have become aware that many of them, if not the majority, are not members of the McGill community,” the statements reads.
University officials also said they saw video evidence of “some people using unequivocally antisemitic language and intimidating behaviour” on campus. CBC News requested a copy of the video, but the university has not responded.
CBC’s Kwabena Oduro reports live from McGill University in Montreal, where pro-Palestinian protesters say they plan to stay at their encampment on campus until the university divests from Israel.
“We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and will act quickly to investigate,” university officials wrote.
Sasha Robson, a member of Independent Jewish Voices McGill who was at the encampment overnight Monday, told CBC News there were no reports of issues overnight.
Zeca Eufemia, a McGill student and teaching assistant who was among those protesting, said the encampment had, indeed, tripled in size, as the university statement claimed.
“We have had people coming in from the community,” he said. “These allegations of antisemitism, I have been here since Saturday, I have not seen any of that.”
Eufemia said supporters from other universities had come to the McGill encampment. He said he was protesting to ensure that money from the tuition he pays doesn’t go to companies that could make weapons that will be used in Gaza.
“We are making our voices heard,” he told CBC News.
The protesters have published a list of investments they object to, which includes approximately $20 million of investments that McGill says it holds in a variety of companies, including Lockheed Martin, an aerospace company that manufactures weapons used by the Israeli military.
McGill publishes a list of its investments online, showing an endowment of more than $1 billion invested in various securities.
Sasha Boucher, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party who was not a McGill student but said he was at the encampment in solidarity with Palestinians, said the protesters felt support from the general public.
“We have actually more food than we know what to do with. We’re telling people to stop bringing us stuff — for now, we’re going to need more stuff later,” he said. “It’s been going very well, there’s a very strong sense of solidarity here.”
Throughout the weekend, McGill University’s media relations office said the protest had been peaceful. On Saturday, officials said a university security staff had instructed protesters to remove their tents, but they refused.
Monday morning, the Montreal chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called out on Instagram for supporters to come to the encampment.
The group’s Instagram post said police presence was increasing on campus and asked for support to “help students protect the encampment.”
Nanre Nafziger, an assistant professor in McGill’s department of integrated studies in education, said she came to the encampment to support the protesting students.
“We stand by them,” she said. “They have the right to protest. They have the right to make demands of the university and we also want to stand by and let them know we are in support of them fully.”
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the militant group’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. During the attacks, some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. More than 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, including women and children.
Health authorities in Gaza say Israel’s offensive in the enclave has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians — the majority of them women and children — and has led to the imminent risk of famine, the destruction of key hospitals and, according to the United Nations, the displacement of 1.9 million people.
David Garfinkle, a Jewish man who lives near McGill’s downtown campus, came by the protest on Monday.
“I don’t like it,” he said of the protest, saying that Israel was targeting Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.
But he acknowledged that the war’s death toll was incredibly high.
“If 30,000 of my neighbours and family were being killed I would probably do the same thing,” he said, “but I would let [Israel] have what they want.… We want Hamas to go bye-bye.”
Garfinkle said the protesters should be marching on the streets, not occupying McGill’s campus, and should be calling for Hamas to give themselves up.
Pearl Eliadis, a human rights lawyer and associate professor at McGill, told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak in an interview that the university may go to court to seek an injunction to have the protesters removed.
“The question really is the extent to which McGill is prepared to go up against people who are protesting peacefully,” she said, “and I underline the word peacefully because any change from that means that they lose their right to protest.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller called the right to free speech ‘excessively important’ when asked about a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University’s downtown campus. But Miller, who represents the Montreal riding where McGill is located, cautioned that ‘we shouldn’t tolerate for a second any form of violence or any hate speech, including antisemitism.’
Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller, whose Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs riding includes McGill University, told journalists “the right to protest and the right to free speech is excessively important, especially in an academic setting” on Monday.
He said that right “doesn’t permit violence,” including hate speech, which will be watched “carefully.”