Student protesters at McGill encampment determined to stay after judge rejects injunction

Protesters at the pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University’s downtown campus drew sighs of relief Wednesday around noon, when news arrived that a Quebec Superior Court judge had rejected an injunction request that would have forced them to leave.

The group has been on campus since Saturday, beginning with about 20 tents scattered on the front lawn near the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke Street and growing to an area of about 4,000 square metres by Wednesday evening. They say they are determined to stay put until the university divests from companies with business interests in Israel.

“It’s excellent news. I think it shows we’re on the right side of history and that fights for equality and justice end up prevailing,” said Rima Khreizat, a recent graduate of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), who has been joining the group during the day.

Khreizat said it was important for her to participate because she is from southern Lebanon, where family members of hers had lost their homes and been displaced by Israeli bombardments in recent weeks.

For much of the day, students and their supporters stood in a circle in front of the camp, chanting slogans such as, “free, free Palestine,” and “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

Rima Khreizat, a former UQAM student, joined the pro-Palestinian protest on McGill University’s front lawn in downtown Montreal Wednesday. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

Yara Fadel was among them. The former Université de Montréal student said she wanted to show her support after seeing images of New York City riot police conduct a violent crackdown on the Columbia University encampment.

“I was so mad and I was so scared for them,” she said, referring to the McGill students, worrying Montreal police could do something similar if the injunction request was approved.

Overnight at the camp, many had also watched videos and reports on social media of police storming the Columbia building where students were occupying in protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Ari Nahman, who is studying religions and cultures at Concordia University and has been staying at the encampment, said scenes of police storming Columbia “got a couple of us crying yesterday. We stand in solidarity with them. We continue in their footsteps.”

‘Valuing voices that are concerned’

The pending injunction request had heightened apprehension that a similar crackdown could occur in Montreal, but police in the city have so far stayed away from the camp. Tuesday, a Montreal police spokesperson said “no crime is being committed” at the encampment and called the situation a civil matter.

The police service wrote on X Wednesday that it would be “prioritizing a peaceful conclusion.”

Nahman, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, said the group is mostly made up of students from McGill and Concordia but that members of other universities, such as UQAM and Université de Montréal, had joined. They said the encampment had created an organizational structure to keep people safe, including a code of conduct, and held a general assembly meeting every morning.

“We discuss points about what’s happening in Gaza, how the Palestinians feel, especially in the camp. And with the whole antisemitism claim, we had a moment for: How are the Jews feeling in the camp? We’re valuing the voices that are concerned,” they said.

After a day of pouring rain Tuesday, protesters at the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University in Montreal chanted in the sun Wednesday. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

Nahman pointed out that the group had received approval and support from the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation at Kahnawà:ke, the traditional seat of government for the community south of Montreal. A statement from the nation was posted on a sign outside the camp, saying, “We are happy to see that students within universities and colleges are occupying their campuses in solidarity with the massacred Palestinian children, women and men.”

McGill and the students requesting the injunction raised concerns about behaviour they described as antisemitic. On Tuesday, the university shared a video with CBC News that shows protesters chanting “all the Zionists are racist, all the Zionists are the terrorists,” as well as “go back to Europe.”

CBC News has not independently verified the video’s source, nor if the people in the video are part of the encampment. The video is one of 27 included in the injunction request on behalf of the two McGill students.

Ari Nahman is a Concordia student in religion and culture who has been camping on McGill’s campus since Saturday, calling for universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

Members of the encampment have said the people pictured in the video are not part of their group.

“We will consistently see the claims of antisemitism being used against our movement,” Nahman said. “The whole point is we have been anti-Zionist Jews since before October … Zionism and Judaism need to be de-conflated.”

In Wednesday’s ruling, Justice Chantal Masse wrote the plaintiffs failed to show that the protests were causing irreparable harm, nor was there any indication at this point that the protesters intended to block access to exams or McGill’s buildings.

Ruling privileges freedom of expression

Masse wrote that if she were to approve an injunction to remove protesters, their “freedom of expression and to gather peacefully would be affected significantly.”

The pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University occupies a portion of the downtown campus’s front lawn. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

Neil Oberman, who represents the plaintiffs, said his clients and others have felt intimidated on campus and that he expects McGill “not to sit on the fence like Switzerland and eat chocolate.”

Sasha Robson, a McGill student and member of Independent Jewish Voices who is part of the encampment, said Masse’s ruling “proves the conflation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism has to stop and I think that’s being affirmed by the court. This is a non-violent protest.”

Students and protesters at the encampment say they see their protest and others on campuses across North America as a fight against the war in Gaza, but also against broader injustices.

Wednesday afternoon, a counter-protester named César Reynel Aguilera approached the McGill encampment with a bullhorn and shouted at students. Protesters used umbrellas to deter the man from further approaching the encampment. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

At around 3 p.m., a man with grey hair walked up to the temporary fencing surrounding the encampment and began shouting at students with a bullhorn. “Your parents should be ashamed,” and “long live Israel” the man, who later identified himself as César Reynel Aguilera, said. Reynel Aguilera continued to shout and approach the camp, prompting protesters to form a protective wall in front of him, chanting, “free, free Palestine,” and other slogans while using umbrellas as shields.

A protester explained afterward that the group wanted to avoid any escalation that would put further scrutiny on them. Reynel Aguilera eventually left. Speaking to reporters on his way out, he called Palestinians “murderers” and said his parents had fled Cuba during the 1950s revolution.

McGill president Deep Saini released a statement Wednesday afternoon, offering to hold a forum to discuss the encampment’s demands if the protesters leave campus.