Quebec revolution summer camp continues despite public outcry, McGill legal actions

A revolution summer camp hosted by the anti-Israel protest encampment at  McGill University in Montreal is set to continue despite public outcry and moves by the university administration to ostracize and punish the organizers.

Organizers Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, who drew outrage over their promotional image of  keffiyeh-garbed men reading while armed with light machine guns and rifles, announced on Tuesday that the “Youth Summer Program has launched!”

“In the absence of an institution which fosters collectivism, popular education, and culture, this summer camp seeks to provide a space that represents the history, the culture, and revolutionary potential of the Palestinian cause,” SPHR McGill and Concordia said on Instagram on Tuesday. “Born out of the McGill Solidarity Encampment, at the heart of an elitist institution which has deliberately erased Palestinian nationhood and identity from its curriculums, this program re-grounds us in narratives of history and culture that center resistance as the essence of our struggle.”

The first week of the camp focuses on the history of “Palestinian resistance” with different speakers each day, “offered by students, community members, and faculty.” Subsequent weeks will cover the “ongoing Nakba,” “Different fronts of the movement,” and “Media after October 7.”

McGill president and vice-chancellor Deep Saini responded to the initial June 12 notice by SPHR and the international media attention by issuing on Friday several strong measures to excommunicate the organization.

In addition to seeking to increase campus security, the university was seeking legal action to prevent SPHR from using the McGill name and is pursuing disciplinary action. It also sought to ostracize the group by calling on the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) to sever its relationship and funding of the group and to publicly condemn the summer program.

Failure to do so would be seen as an endorsement of SPHR. By Tuesday, SSMU had not appeared to publicly denounce the program. SSMU had issued a June 8 statement condemning the McGill administration for allowing police to remove activists, including from SPHR, who had occupied the James Administration building on June 6.

Saini condemns violent imagery 

Saini condemned the violent imagery of the youth camp as a part of a worrying escalation across North America.

“I want to emphasize that this is only the latest escalation in SPHR’s longstanding strategy of intimidation and fear. This is the same group that described the October 7 Hamas assault and taking of hostages as ‘heroic.’ SPHR has invoked offensive antisemitic language and imagery and claimed responsibility for the harassment of McGill community members. Their incendiary rhetoric and tactics seek to intimidate and destabilize our community,” said Saini. “In recent months, some members of the McGill community have chosen to advocate for their views through open dialogue and peaceful protest. Regrettably, SPHR is not among them.”

The youth camp garnered denunciation across all levels of the Canadian government.

Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre called to shut the camp down on Saturday.

“This glorification of the genocidal terrorism of Hamas is an abomination,” Poilievre said on social media. “Antisemitism has become a plague on Canadian university campuses.”

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller said that the limits for freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate had been reached.

Liberal York Centre MP Ya’ara Saks said Sunday that McGill and the University of Toronto had failed to de-escalate the situation on their campuses.

“Freedom of expression and the right to protest does not and cannot be a veil for hate speech and incitement,” said Saks.

Federation Combined Jewish Appeal called for an end of university funding for SPHR for “promoting terrorist propaganda images as part of a summer camp program.”

B’nai Brith Canada said the imagery featuring “armed militants” aimed “to indoctrinate young minds with extremist ideologies” and on Friday called on the administration and local authorities to shut down the camp.

International March of the Living and Montreal resident and Holocaust survivor Angele Orosz condemned the camp in a statement.

“What’s happening today at McGill is so frightening for me,” said Orosz. “I was born in December 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau. I came to Canada in 1973 to escape antisemitism, and now my grandchildren are suffering. Their school and synagogue were shot at, and now this is at McGill. It’s unbearable. I am petrified of the students.”