Police move in on McGill University to clear out pro-Palestinian encampment

Police moved in on the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University on Wednesday in an attempt to clear protesters who have been there since late April.

McGill president Deep Saini said in a university-wide note that the downtown campus is closed for safety reasons, employees are asked to stay home and the situation is ongoing. The dismantlement of the camp is being overseen by Montreal police with the assistance of a private security firm, he said.

Dozens of Montreal and provincial police in riot gear blocked every entrance to the McGill campus.

The encampment was being torn down behind the police lines, with bulldozers and mounted police involved. Protesters waving Palestinian flags were still visible on campus.

About 100 protestors on Sherbrooke St. faced down the police barricade chanting slogans and occasionally insulting police officers.

The move to bring in police to dismantle the camp at McGill comes as some Ontario universities, including the University of Toronto, have seen their encampments wind down without police intervention.

The encampments are part of a broad movement across North American postsecondary campuses that aims to draw attention to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and that has pushed for divestment from firms tied to the Israeli military.

McGill had been awaiting a court date to pursue an injunction in Quebec Superior Court, after earlier failing to win an expedited hearing of the case.

The university administration broke off negotiations with protesters in June after it said it was clear they were not likely to be fruitful, and after a series of protest escalations that the university said were unacceptable.

“McGill will always support the right of free expression and assembly, within the bounds of the laws and policies that keep us all safe. However, recent events go far beyond peaceful protest, and have inhibited the respectful exchange of views and ideas that is so essential to the university’s mission and to our sense of community,” Dr. Saini wrote Wednesday.

“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.”

Dr. Saini said McGill took the decision to dismantle the protest in conjunction with officials from the City of Montreal. He said McGill also hired an outside firm “to investigate the activities within the encampment.”

He did not name the firm, but said it had found that few members of the encampment are connected to McGill, that there are significant health, safety and fire risks, that two drug overdoses had occurred in the last week, and that the camp is infested with rats.

That information led the university administration to conclude there was an urgent need to move, according to Dr. Saini.

“This camp was not a peaceful protest. It was a heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence,” he wrote.

More to come.