McGill moving forward with injunction request against pro-Palestinian encampment
Provisional injunction request rejected by judge earlier this week
McGill University announced Friday afternoon it is moving to the next stage of its injunction request against the pro-Palestinian encampment that was set up on its downtown campus three weeks ago.
The university released a statement at 4 p.m., two days after Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc St-Pierre rejected a provisional injunction request to have the camp dismantled. St-Pierre wrote in his decision that the school had failed to demonstrate an urgent need to dismantle the camp.
Today, McGill said it was moving forward with a request for an interlocutory injunction, the next stage as it seeks to have the encampment permanently banned.
McGill is seeking an injunction to have the protesters barred from "camping or occupying in any manner whatsoever" as well as from protesting in any way that is in violation of university policy on its downtown campus.
The order would also authorize bailiffs tasked with serving the judgment to "call upon any peace officer to assist them."
Counter-protest Friday
Montreal police have so far taken a passive approach to the encampment, occasionally monitoring it from across the street. There have been exceptions, including earlier this month when a large pro-Israel counter-protest took place on Sherbrooke Street in front of campus and on Friday afternoon when a small group of Jewish activists approached the camp with signs that said, "We witnessed Oct. 7. Ask us anything."
Ysabella Hazan, a 24-year-old University of Ottawa law graduate, was among them. CBC News arrived shortly after she and another man were encouraged to leave the grounds by Montreal police officers, who by 1:30 p.m. were monitoring the entrance to campus via the Roddick Gates.
Hazan, who appeared to be accompanied by private security guards, stood on the sidewalk outside the gates, carrying one of those signs. She said they had wanted to have a conversation with the encampment protesters, but that they were soon confronted with chanting and drumming.
"Why did we come here? Number one, to tell the Jewish story from a Jewish lens, from a lens of Jews who are connected to Israel, not from Jews who are tokenized," Hazan said, referring to pro-Palestinian Jews who have joined encampment protests.
"I see Palestinians as my cousins, as my family. And I don't want to see anybody, especially anybody who's innocent, die. It's terrible. But when we misclassify it and we add terms like 'genocide,' it's appropriating, first of all, the Holocaust," she said.
Kieran Ricardo, a philosophy and history student at Concordia University, arrived to the encampment Friday shortly after Hazan was asked to leave. He had responded to an online call from protesters for backup in response to counter-protesters.
"I believe that it's an obligation to be here and stand in solidarity with the students," Ricardo said.
Shortly after Hazan left, a separate group who identified themselves as Jewish students from McGill and Concordia also attempted to speak with encampment protesters. They were met with tense looks and people slowly gathering in front of them.
The group settled on a bench in front of the encampment, before being asked to leave by police. One of its members, Michael Ishayak, a finance student at Concordia, said he'd previously been told by protesters to "Go back to Europe." When he told them his family was from Iraq, they said, "Go back to Iraq!"
"It's peaceful until as soon as someone who doesn't agree with them," Ishayak said.
To Ricardo, who is also Jewish and wore a red keffiyeh, the group appeared to have an agenda.
"To me, this is an asymmetrical confrontation. What's happening to the Palestinian people and the arguments that are coming from the Zionist camp.… There's no equivocation between them," Ricardo said, citing the tens of thousands of Palestinians that the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has reported killed.
Still, he added that confrontations between counter-protesters and protesters at the camp, and the police response, have been mild compared to what has been reported at pro-Palestinian encampments in the United States.
Cst. Jean-Pierre Brabant, a media relations officer for Montreal police, said specialized intervention officers had simply asked Hazan and the man to leave and that they obliged.
"There was some tension between the two parties and to avoid anything happening, the officers asked the [counter-protesters] to leave the site," Brabant said over the phone.
McGill has said the encampment has made a number of Jewish students feel unsafe, has caused confrontations between campers and counter-protesters and could be unsanitary and a fire hazard.
McGill moves convocation
In a statement Friday, McGill said it had been open to dialogue with the campers and had met with them six times between May 3 and May 10 in hopes of coming to an agreement that would end their presence on campus.
"McGill's request for a provisional injunction did not seek to stop protests on its campus; it sought to stop an indefinite occupation of its property," the statement said.
It is unclear what the university offered the student activists in the meetings, but the talks do not appear to have been fruitful. Activists have said they would not be leaving until the university agrees to their demands.
The encampment has been in place since April 27, when roughly 20 tents sprung up on the field near McGill's Roddick Gates. There now appears to be several dozen tents inside a large area encircled by temporary fencing that is covered with handmade signs. The student protesters have been asking McGill to divest from companies with ties to Israel and cut ties with Israeli academic institutions.
McGill's lawyers argued the school could not enjoy the free use of its private property as a result of the protest, specifically for its annual convocation ceremonies. But they also acknowledged the university had already found an alternate venue for the event at a cost of $700,000.
Friday, McGill said it would be holding convocation from May 28 to June 5 at the Bell Centre, Montreal's downtown stadium where the Montreal Canadiens National Hockey League team plays.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
