A pro-Palestinian encampment, similar to the one at McGill University and other North American campuses, was being erected at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Sunday.
A small handful of tents were up at the UQAM’s Cœur des sciences by mid-afternoon.
A social media video appeared to show individuals carrying metal fences and wood pallets onto university grounds.
In a news release outlining their demands, activists are calling on UQAM and all Quebec universities to divest from institutions supporting and benefiting from Israel’s actions in Gaza. They also want the province’s post-secondary institutions to disclose any collaborations with Israel; and the abolition of the Quebec-Israel office.
“The activists have no intention of leaving the UQAM encampment until their demands are met, and are encouraging the establishment of similar encampments on other university and college campuses across Canada,” organizers wrote in a news release.
The new encampment – organizers call it Université Populaire Al-Aqsa (UPA-UQAM) – went up Sunday against the backdrop of an international student movement in solidarity with Gaza.
It also went up on the 16th day of McGill’s downtown protest.
McGill has requested an injunction to dismantle that encampment. The court order, if granted, would require those participating to refrain from camping on, or occupying, the campus. It would authorize Montreal police to enforce it, the university says.
Organizers at the new UQAM encampment are demanding that McGill officials withdraw that injunction request.
“We express our unconditional solidarity with their demands and categorically condemn any form of judicialization of the struggle for Palestine,” they wrote.
“The encampment will continue as long as the McGill and Concordia activists have not obtained what they have been demanding for years.”
As McGill protesters have been doing, the UQAM protesters put out a list Sunday of items needed through donation. That list included tents, blankets, plywood, ice, coffee, snacks, metro tickets and small Palestinian flags.