Anti-Israel encampments dismantled at universities across Canada

Anti-Israel protest encampments have been dismantled voluntarily or by authorities at academic institutions across Canada over the past two weeks following a Superior Court of Ontario ruling, marking a significant ebb of the campus occupation movement in the country since it was established in the United States in April.

McGill University announced on Wednesday that it had worked with the City of Montreal and the Montreal City Police Service to dismantle the encampment at its downtown campus.

President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini said in a statement that the administration had moved to clear the camp due to growing security risks and dangers. Most activists at the encampment were not McGill students, according to Saini, one organizer arriving in Montreal before the camp was established on April 7.

Encampments sheltered non-students, rats and drug deals

Homeless people and drug dealers had allegedly made the encampment home, with narcotics being sold at the site and syringes discarded on the grounds. There had reportedly been two drug overdoses at the encampment since July 6. Rats had also infested the camp, and there were multiple fire hazards, said Saini. Safety officials and university staff had been denied access to the encampment, compounding security concerns.

The camp and attracted violent protesters engaged in mass vandalism who had planned further attacks on university property, said Saini. A “revolutionary youth summer program” was hosted at the site, advertised with images of masked men with rifles and light machine guns.

Saini emphasized that while the university supported free speech and assembly, the encampment had gone “far beyond peaceful protest.”

“People linked to the camp have harassed our community members, engaged in antisemitic intimidation, damaged and destroyed McGill property, forcefully occupied a building, clashed with police, and committed acts of assault,” said Saini. “This camp was not a peaceful protest. It was a heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence, organized largely by individuals who are not part of our university community.”

Students for Justice in Palestine McGill had requested that supporters on Instagram defend the encampment as police cordoned off the area on Wednesday. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, which had organized the youth camp, said that there had been at least one arrest of defiant activists.

The police and city had dismantled another Montreal encampment in the city on July 5, Mayor Valerie Plante announced, after the camp prevented free movement and access to workers, firefighters, and police. She assured residents that she understood their frustration in the wake of the October 7 massacre and Israel’s military response in Gaza, and while the ability to demonstrate was a right, it could not come at the expense of public space and security.

“An installation like this posed significant safety issues, both for the people on the site and for those who travel and work nearby, in addition to contravening a municipal by-law,” said Plante.

Federation Combined Jewish Appeal President and CEO Yair Szlak welcomed the decision but stated that the encampment should have been cleared when it was established on June 22.

University of Ottawa President and Vice-Chancellor Jacques Frémont announced on Wednesday that the encampment at the Canadian capital had been abandoned after negotiations between the administration and protest organizers failed. Frémont said that the protesters had left the site in a “deplorable state” with defacement to the campus that compounded “considerable damage” to the surrounding area, generating “huge costs.” The administrator said that illegal occupations were not an expression of free speech per a July 2 Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling on a University of Toronto encampment.

“Despite the many constructive conversations we had, the organizers showed no willingness to make concessions,” said Frémont. “Instead, they responded by escalating their tactics, including more graffiti and physical aggression directed toward our staff.”

PROTEST ORGANIZERS said that the two-month encampment was just one of their tactics to pressure the university to adopt anti-Israel divestment policies. They said that Fremont was either out of touch with reality or cruel, and they had come to the table for good-faith negotiations. The group shared on Instagram a video of them covering the grounds in spray paint.

“You will not get to enjoy a single penny of the profits you earn from your genocidal investments. Every dollar you make off the blood of Palestinians will be lost as we continue to confront you, on this lawn and across campus this coming year, and the year after that,” said the encampment organizers. “We will be back.”

The University of Waterloo encampment was dismantled on July 7 after being threatened with injunction proceedings by the Ontario Superior Court. The administration had withdrawn the June 25 proceedings and legal claims if the grounds were vacated. OccupyUWaterloo said that it had faced a $1.5 million lawsuit. President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel had announced the move after a mid-June trespass notice had been ignored.

“I know that some members of the community disagree with some of the actions taken by the University. I also know that many of you – employees and students alike – have experienced harms on campus. Instances of antisemitism and of anti-Palestinian racism have been reported on many occasions over these past few months,” Goel said in a July 8 statement. “The Israel-Hamas war continues to devastate us and to affect many in our community very profoundly.”

OccupyUWaterloo said it was shifting tactics and touted disclosure of the university’s investments as a win for the movement. It said it could now prove institutional connections to Israeli companies such as Elbit.

On Wednesday, the University of British Columbia announced that protesters had decamped on July 7 after 71 days of occupying the campus. The UBC encampment reaffirmed its demands and said on Instagram that it would embark on “summertime tactics that will include programming, direct actions, community building, and ongoing persistent engagement.”

The sixty-day Western University encampment came to an end on July 6, according to a statement by President and Vice-Chancellor Alan Shepard. The Western Divestment Coalition claimed on July 6 on Instagram that they had been presented with a trespassing notice that undermined negotiations. Shepard said on July 5 that encampment representatives had rejected a series of concessions. While at the time the encampment observed peaceful protest, he said there had been reports of “intimidation, harassment, and other disrespectful acts.”

“We are also continuing to investigate reports of illegal behavior, including assault and vandalism,” Shepard said.

On July 2, the Ontario Superior Court granted a University of Toronto injunction request to remove its two-month encampment, which also prohibited the erecting of structures, tents, or barriers and remaining on campus overnight. Occupy UofT complied with the decision and voluntarily disbanded the encampment on July 3, but said that the injunction showed that the administration had taken the side of Israel and was complicit in a supposed genocide. It said on Instagram on July 4 that it would continue activism and it was only a matter of time before the university accepted its demands.

Hillel Ontario CEO Rabbi Seth Goren welcomed the injunction to remove the “hateful and disruptive encampment,” but Amnesty International on July 2 condemned the provincial court’s ruling as a “ setback on the right of peaceful assembly” that would “have a chilling effect on future peaceful demonstrations.”

The University of Calgary had removed its encampment earlier than the trend, having the Calgary Police Service enforce a trespass order on May 9. Most protesters left, according to a May 10 statement by President and Vice-Chancellor Ed McCauley, but the situation devolved into projectiles being thrown at police, who responded with stun grenades and arrests. McCauley criticized counter-protesters for contributing to the clashes.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said on Wednesday that Iranian propaganda had influenced the largely defunct university encampments, describing the movement as a “colossal failure of the BDS movement’s bullying and intimidation tactics” that only succeeded in causing “harm to the campus community members, properties, and reputations.”

However, CIJA and the Windsor Jewish Federation Community Centre condemned the University of Windsor on Thursday for taking a different approach than other Canadian universities by reaching two agreements with the encampment.

In exchange for removing the encampment, the university said on Thursday that it would update “anti-racism and anti-oppression policies and training, disclose its investments, and conform its finances with “UN Principles for Responsible Investment.”