McGill University president decries lack of police action against pro-Palestinian encampments

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McGill University’s president called Montreal police inaction on protesters baffling in a note to campus that announced students had walked away from negotiations to end a pro-Palestinian encampment and escalated their tactics.

In an e-mail to faculty, staff and students Wednesday, Deep Saini said some of the recent actions of protesters were designed to “threaten, coerce and scare people.” He said administrators had been targeted at their homes more than once.

In one case, protesters stayed for hours using a megaphone, saying “You can’t hide,” Dr. Saini wrote. In another case, an administrator was followed and harassed by masked protesters who came from the encampment, he wrote. Buildings on campus have been defaced with graffiti that crosses the line into discriminatory speech, he added.

“None of this is peaceful protesting,” Dr. Saini wrote. “It is completely unacceptable. In each case we have reported what has happened to the police and urged them to act.”

Dr. Saini also described a protest march through city streets that ended at the encampment that included the hanging in effigy of what appeared to be an Israeli political figure in striped prison garb. He described Montreal police inaction in that case as puzzling and said he had asked them to take “every action possible under the law.”

“We reported the incident to Montreal police (SPVM), who, as we understand it, watched the events unfold without preventing them. This baffles us,” Dr. Saini wrote. “If those who committed these acts are found to be members of the McGill community, the university will also apply its disciplinary processes.”

Montreal police spokeswoman Melanie Bergeron said police could not comment because an investigation is under way.

McGill in court seeking injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment on campus

Encampments remain in place on campuses across the country, part of a wider movement that has gained momentum as the war in Gaza drags on. Organizers have been calling for universities to disclose their investments, divest from companies connected to the Israeli military and break ties with some Israeli universities.

In some cases, such as at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta earlier this month, police have been called to clear campus encampments, which has sparked concerns about violence.

At the University of British Columbia on Wednesday, police moved in to clear an intersection near the campus that was blocked by dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The RCMP issued a statement saying one person was arrested.

Susan Bibbings, a West Vancouver woman, says she was arrested at the intersection protest while carrying an effigy of a child covered in a burial shroud. She said Mounties held her at the detachment for several hours before charging her with mischief and intimidation.

Ms. Bibbings, who has been arrested in and around Vancouver numerous times over the past decade for civil disobedience in support of various causes, said she has been showing up at her alma mater in recent months to demonstrate her anger at Israel’s killing of civilians.

“It is impossible for me to stay silent in this inhumanity,” she told The Globe and Mail in a phone interview shortly after her release.

Two attempts to obtain a court injunction to authorize the clearing of the encampment at McGill have been unsuccessful. Another court process is ongoing. The University of Toronto is also turning to the courts in its efforts to resolve an encampment that has been in place since May 2. The judge hearing the university’s application for an injunction released a planned schedule Wednesday that indicates the case won’t be heard until June 19 and 20. U of T had been hoping to have it heard before convocation, which runs between June 3 and June 21. The judge said that was the earliest it could be held while allowing the respondents sufficient time to answer the university’s application.

Some universities have been able to negotiate a peaceful end to the protests on their campuses. At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., a nine-point agreement was reached between protesters and the university administration last week. It calls for disclosure of all direct and pooled investments on a university website and said a process will be created to raise questions about divestment and forward them to the university’s board of governors. Protesters dismantled their camp on the weekend.

McGill’s Dr. Saini in his note to campus laid out his administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to the encampment. He said the university had offered to study divestment from weapons companies and improve its financial transparency by making public stock holdings of less than $500,000 (it already discloses those above that amount). McGill has rejected calls to boycott Israeli academic institutions, he said, because the university’s mission is to advance knowledge and academic engagement and the free exchange of ideas are a force for good.

He said the concessions McGill has offered are similar to those that have been accepted by protesters elsewhere. But student representatives walked away from the negotiating table, he said.

“Discussions with the encampment participants have not been easy,” he said. “McGill’s offer, which is comparable to that made by other universities who have reached resolutions, has been rejected by the encampment on our campus.”

With a report from Xiao Xu