People work on a sign during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at an encampment at McGill University in Montreal, on April 27.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Montreal have set up an encampment on the campus of McGill University to demand that the school divest from Israel-related funds.
About 20 tents were erected behind the Roddick Gates, the main entrance to the university’s downtown campus, on Saturday as hundreds of protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and other slogans denouncing Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Protesters said they intend to stay until McGill meets their demands to cut ties with Israeli universities and divest from corporations arming the Israeli military, among others.
Ali Salman, a protest organizer and student at Concordia University, another Montreal school where tensions have been high since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, said the encampment was inspired by similar actions at Columbia University in New York and at other U.S. campuses, where crackdowns have led to hundreds of arrests.
Jewish groups in Canada and the U.S. have expressed concerns that pro-Palestinian protests are making campuses unsafe for Jewish students.
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“The silence of our academic leaders is deafening,” Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Their inaction is enabling. The time to step up and combat this hatred head-on is long overdue. We must halt this rising tide of antisemitism on our campuses!”
The protest at McGill remained peaceful on Sunday. Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers stayed nearby to ensure everyone was safe, but no arrests were made.
In a statement Saturday, McGill said it is “aware of the tents being put up” on campus and that “security officers” were on site. “We support the rights of our campus community to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly within the bounds of McGill’s policies and the law,” the university said, adding that it has “a duty to create a respectful environment.”
In a subsequent statement Saturday night, McGill said it “instructed the protesters to remove their tents; they refused.” But the university did not specify how it planned to respond.
Margaret Levey, a McGill School of Continuing Studies lecturer who was protesting Saturday, said she was there “because I believe that McGill needs to listen to its students and divest from their holdings in enterprises and institutions that are complicit with the genocide happening in Gaza.”
Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 34,000 people over the past six months, according to Gaza health authorities. The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Israeli towns on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Lilah Woods, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, which opposes the war in Gaza, said she was protesting Saturday to denounce Israeli attacks and support “equality for everyone.”
“Jewishness is being weaponized very effectively to commit atrocities in our name,” Ms. Woods said. “I refuse to stay silent.”
On Sunday, people came in and out of the encampment as McGill security personnel stood watch. Protesters sat talking in small groups on the ground or on camp chairs. One family was making plastic jewellery. Two boys kicked a soccer ball nearby.
“It will continue to grow,” said Zeyad Abisaab, general co-ordinator for Concordia University’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights. “Everyone here knows why they’re here.” He said protesters will “remain steadfast” if the police move to dismantle the camp.
In March, more than 1,200 McGill alumni, faculty and staff signed an open letter detailing divestment demands.
They also asked McGill to cut all academic ties with the Israeli state, including universities, as well as removing from its curriculum “classes with ties to Israel.”
With reports from Nicolas Van Praet in Montreal and Associated Press