McGill University is considering its next steps to deal with the camp set up by pro-Palestinian activists on campus grounds in downtown Montreal, officials said Monday.
In a statement published on its website, the university said the situation has “shifted significantly” and the number of people in the encampment has “tripled since Saturday.”
University officials added “many of them, if not the majority, are not members of the McGill community.”
A spokesperson for the encampment said members are calling for McGill and Concordia universities to divest from Israel-connected funds. They demand the academic institutions cut financial ties with Israel in light of the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Signs at the McGill encampment state “You are funding genocide” and “Free Gaza now” and describe the demonstrators as standing in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and people in Gaza.
It follows a wave of similar protests being held on university and college campuses across the United States. The Associated Press reported that nearly 900 people had been arrested in American college demonstrations since April 18, when New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University and arrested more than 100 demonstrators.
As of 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Montreal police said the protest at McGill had remained peaceful, with no arrests or need for police intervention.
McGill has repeatedly said it supports the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly within the bounds of the university’s policies as well as the law, but the ongoing encampment violates both.
On Monday, the university said it had viewed “video evidence of some people using unequivocally antisemitic language and intimidating behaviour, which is absolutely unacceptable on our campuses.”
“We condemn this in the strongest possible terms and will act quickly to investigate,” McGill said.
The incident McGill referred to was refuted by Sasha Robson, a member of Independent Jewish Voices McGill.
“We are here as a peaceful protest,” Robson said. “We are doing everything we can so it stays that way.”
The university is in contact with the encampment’s lawyers to discuss a potential timeline to take down the tents, but said it was informed late Sunday the protesters “indicated that they intended to remain on campus indefinitely.”
Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said Monday that the province is closely monitoring the encampment.
She said she is in contact with both McGill and Montreal police, adding nobody wants “anything to escalate.”
“I think everybody is taking the situation very seriously,” Déry said.
— with files from Global’s Brayden Jagger Haines, Gloria Henriquez, Alessia Simona Maratta and The Canadian Press
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