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A judge began hearing arguments Tuesday afternoon regarding an injunction sought by two McGill University students requesting that the encampment set up over the weekend on the school’s grounds be dismantled.
On Saturday, people calling on the university to divest from any financial involvement with Israel began setting up tents near the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke St. They said they will be there indefinitely and have posted signs near the tents in support of Palestinians.
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As part of the injunction, the plaintiffs are “seeking injunctive relief … to enjoin (the) defendants from participating in any protest or action related to protesting within 100 metres of (McGill’s) buildings … in order to protect and secure (the) plaintiffs, and to ensure unhindered access to the buildings.”
The request targets five groups, including Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill.
The two students claim that “not only does this encampment violate McGill’s bylaws, it creates a dangerous, hostile, aggressive and violent environment for students, staff and professors, as well as for those participating in the encampment.”
It also quotes from a “video from the encampment” in which protesters are heard chanting, “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution!”
“The plaintiffs can only interpret chants and promotion of ‘intifada’ as a call for armed violence.”
Neil Oberman, the lawyer representing the two students, was part of a group of lawyers who successfully obtained a temporary injunction barring certain groups from protesting within 50 metres of nearly two dozen Jewish community buildings in Montreal. In April, a Quebec Superior Court judge agreed to extend the injunction for six months.
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In January, the lawyer sent a letter to Concordia University on behalf of a student there who called on the school to take steps against antisemitism and violence directed at Jewish students on campus. The student, who wished to remain anonymous, said there had been threats made against Jewish students, antisemitic graffiti and that some teachers were promoting hate.
Justice Chantal Masse had difficulty getting Tuesday’s hearing started in terms of getting to the request itself. Many lawyers are involved and one lawyer, representing McGill’s law faculty and a student union, said she wanted to present several affidavits on behalf of her client.
“I have people that are in the encampment. I have Jewish people in the encampment. They say it is peaceful,” the lawyer said.
When the judge finally was able to hear arguments on the injunction itself, she asked Oberman: “Is there any evidence of blocking access to buildings?”
Oberman said he didn’t know because he wasn’t at the scene on Tuesday.
“But people don’t want to go to the campus because they don’t feel safe,” he said.
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