Police spray tear gas after protesters occupy McGill admin building

Article content

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a McGill University administration building for several hours Thursday over what they said was the university’s failure to comply with the demands of the ongoing encampment at the school’s downtown campus.

Around 7 p.m., an hour after it started raining, Montreal riot squad officers entered the building and SPVM officers could be seen leaning against third-floor windows, where student occupiers had been standing previously and had hung banners and flags.

Article content

A crowd of hundreds of protesters and onlookers had surrounded the building but were forced back shortly after 7 p.m. after police sprayed a chemical irritant. One protester, who identified herself as Zaza, said she was standing about one metre from the riot police line when the officer in front of her took out a canister and sprayed her in the face.

The irritant did not seem to dissuade the protesters. As the dozen or so who had been sprayed moved back, others moved immediately in to face the officers, chanting again, “There is no violence here, why are you in riot gear?”

On social media, protesters searched for remedies to lessen the sting of the chemicals.

Toggle full screen modePrevious Gallery Image

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

Next Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions

All 12 Photos for Gallery

Function Not Available

Full Screen is not supported on this browser version.

You may use a different browser or device to view this in full screen.

OK

Article content

Article content

About 7:30 p.m., protesters began moving large items toward the police lines. This prompted a much more thorough deployment of chemical irritants, forcing protesters away from the building.

Police charged the crowd of protesters — some wore rain ponchos, others held umbrellas — after the students used fencing to box the police in. After using more chemical irritants, police banged their shields and pushed the protesters along toward the encampment near the Roddick Gates.

Protesters in the crowd had earlier in the occupation of the building banged drums and chanted slogans such as “Stop the funding now,” “We are the revolution,” “Genocide is crystal clear,” and “Saini, Saini, take a side,” referring to McGill president Deep Saini.

The students blocked the building’s entrance with fencing and a shelving unit that supported potted plants. In front of another door, protesters had linked arms as police looked on. They hung sheets painted with slogans and a Palestinian flag from open windows on the third floor. At least six protesters stood at these windows, their faces covered with keffiyehs and goggles. Meanwhile, below, a line of riot squad police officers blocked an entrance to the building.

Article content

Before entering the James Administration building, officers stood calmly staring ahead as protesters shouted at “Shame” at them and “Shame on McGill.”

A young woman who identified herself as an organizer of the barricade and a spokesperson for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, said the action was organized out of frustration with the McGill administration’s refusal to meet demands of the encampment, which has been a fixture on the downtown campus for almost seven weeks. The protest began in late April following similar protests on U.S. university campuses. These have been in response to Israel’s war with Hamas, the Gaza-based terrorist organization that on Oct. 7 invaded Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. The Israeli war has led to the deaths of more than 34,000 people.

The SPHR spokesperson said she is a McGill student but declined to give her name “for safety reasons.”

“Our administration is complicit in funding and propping up this genocide and they have refused to meet the demands of the students … after 41 days of this encampment being set up.”

Article content

She said the students inside the building were willing to stay until their demands are met. The demands have been for McGill to break financial and academic ties with Israel.

“Our students are putting their bodies on the line … We don’t want our tuition money to be used to invest in weapons manufacturing companies that are dropping bombs on children in Gaza,” she said.

“People who are part of the McGill community have blockaded and occupied the James Administration Building to protest the ongoing escalations in Rafah and the massacres and the crimes that are being perpetrated against our people in the ongoing genocide,” Rama Al-Malah, a member of the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill, told The Gazette in a phone interview. “But also to protest our administration’s ongoing complicity in funding and propping up this genocide financially and politically.”

She said the occupation is also intended to protest the university administration’s failure to comply with the demands made by members of the ongoing encampment at the university’s downtown campus. Asked about the large police presence on campus, Al-Malah, who said she didn’t know how many protesters were inside the building, said participants were committed to “not being moved until their demands are met.”

In a terse emailed statement Thursday evening, McGill said: “Protesters are currently occupying the main administration building on the downtown campus of McGill University. Police and security services are on site. Protesters have set up a barricade outside the building.”

This is a developing story. More to come.

Article content

Article content