After American universities, it is McGill’s turn to be taken over by pro-Palestine students. Around twenty tents were erected on the university campus, surrounded by more than a hundred demonstrators, including students from McGill and Concordia.
“Divestment now!” » chanted the demonstrators to the sound of drums on Saturday afternoon on the McGill campus. The atmosphere was friendly, with several families and young children present.
“The students organized this encampment to protest against the complicity of McGill and Concordia in the occupation and genocide in Gaza,” explained to The Press a representative of the McGill organization Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), according to whom the demonstration brought together nearly a thousand people at its peak.
The demonstration, announced on X by the SPHR groups from McGill and Concordia, began around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Behind barricades plastered with slogans, a camp of around twenty tents was set up, and many demonstrators were still standing chanting slogans around 6 p.m.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Camp in front of McGill University
The students plan to camp indefinitely, until their demands are heard. “(McGill) sent us an email this morning to try to intimidate us,” said the McGill SPHR representative, according to whom the students nevertheless remain “unshakeable and committed”.
“We’re just following the wave”
“It’s full of hope today,” commented Lara Al Barazih, who joined the demonstration early in the afternoon with her friends. “We expected this movement, with everything that is happening in the United States. We’re just following the wave,” added the young woman, who said she was thinking of joining the camp later.
Former Québec Solidaire spokesperson Amir Khadir joined the crowd in the middle of the afternoon. “I am convinced that Mélanie Joly and Justin Trudeau are really concerned about what is happening to the Palestinian people,” he stressed, denouncing, however, the “complicity” of Western governments with Israel.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Amir Khadir speaks with protesters
Mr. Khadir called on Canadian leaders to stop arms sales to Israel. “We need not just a cessation of hostilities, not just a ceasefire, we need a lasting solution,” he added.
“As a child of parents who lived through the Lebanese civil war, which was caused by interference from the West and Israel, I believe it is important to stand in solidarity with all people in the Middle East. -Orient,” commented a protester who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions on her job.
According to the young woman, it was only a matter of time before a pro-Palestine encampment was set up on the campus of a Montreal university. “I was waiting for this to happen,” she added.
No police intervention
Security officers are on scene, according to McGill.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
“We recognize that our university community has the right to exercise freedom of expression and assembly within the limits provided by University policies and the law,” the university said in an email.
Agents from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) were deployed around the campus “to ensure the safety of people and traffic in the surrounding area,” says Jean-Pierre Brabant, spokesperson for the SPVM, according to whom McGill n would not have required police intervention until now. “For the moment, everything is going well with the demonstration,” adds the spokesperson.
McGill, however, recalled that it has “the duty to create a respectful environment, conducive to the execution of our university mission, in which our community is protected from any attack on its health and safety.”
A movement that is growing
The protest camp set up at McGill is part of a larger movement of pro-Palestine demonstrations, which began at Columbia University in New York.
On April 17, student protesters erected a dozen tents on the campus of the prestigious university, demanding that Columbia withdraw its investments in companies that benefit the Israeli military and state.
The same day, the president of the university asked the New York police to dismantle the occupation camp. This intervention, which led to the arrest of around a hundred students, also galvanized the protest movement against the war in Gaza in the United States.
The Columbia occupation camp reappeared a few days later, and anger spread across many American campuses like Harvard, Yale, Emerson and the University of California at Berkeley, where tents also sprang up, and where hundreds of other arrests were made.
With Agence France-Presse
reference: www.lapresse.ca