Protest in downtown Montreal after McGill encampment comes down

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Demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Montreal Thursday night in protest of the McGill University encampment’s dismantling.

What began as a pro-Palestinian gathering at Phillips Square around 9 p.m. quickly consumed central downtown. Chanting protesters, many of them masked, moved down Ste-Catherine St., with police in riot gear containing them on either side.

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A message blared over police loudspeakers, ordering the crowd to disperse and declaring the protest unlawful.

Meanwhile, physical clashes broke out between officers and protesters, with police firing pepper spray and tear gas on multiple occasions.

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But protesters continued to march through downtown Montreal as passersby filmed them on their phones and as people in cars, blocked by the protest, watched through their windows.

Some demonstrators began to disperse as the night progressed, with many leaving via the métro, while others continued to protest, resulting in more clashes with the police. By 9:45 p.m., most of the protesters had left.

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Reached by The Gazette around 10:15 p.m., the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal could not yet confirm whether there were any arrests or injuries.

The events followed the dismantling of the pro-Palestinian protest encampment at McGill, which stood on the university’s downtown campus for more than two months before it was taken apart by heavy machinery Wednesday morning.

In addition to the police, a private security firm hired by McGill assisted in the takedown.

McGill stated on Thursday that escalating health, safety and security concerns forced the decision to remove the camp, citing evidence of drug use and an alleged rat infestation. It also claimed that most of the people staying in the encampment were non-students, including unhoused people.

Encampment representatives labelled these claims as “baseless.”

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