After McGill and Ottawa universities, in particular, it is the turn of the University of Toronto campus located in the city center to be the scene of a pro-Palestinian encampment. The establishment warns the protesting students that they could be suspended.
Protesters arrived on scene around 4 a.m. Thursday and set up several dozen tents on the circle’s lawn King’s College, in the heart of campus.
Around a hundred protesters were on site Thursday noon.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have set up camp on the University of Toronto campus.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Eddahia
Student and protester Erin Mackey says she wants to show solidarity
with the international movement in favor of Palestine in the armed conflict against Israel.
Mackey, who is an organizer of the occupation, said students from all walks of life, different religions
were there, as well as several teachers. She says protesters will not break camp by 10 p.m., as the university has asked.
In a statement, protesters at the University of Toronto said they were demanding the higher education institution reveal a full list of its investments and divest from assets that support Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal colonization of Palestine
. They also demanded that the university cut ties with Israeli academic institutions that operate in the occupied West Bank.
Kalliope Anvar McCall, another protester, says the demonstrators will only leave when the University acquiesces to their demands to end all investment in companies linked to Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlements in Palestine
in addition to boycotting “complicit” Israeli universities.
This area has been declared [du campement] like a zone without police and without Zionists. We are ready to do anything to defend this space.
Women’s studies professor Robyn Maynard says it’s important that protesters are “protected.” The genocide in Gaza is one of the greatest injustices at the moment
she says.
On Sunday, the University of Toronto warned its students in an email that setting up a camp would be contrary to its code of conduct and would constitute intrusion
on “private property”.
The circle lawn King’s College had been closed in anticipation, says the establishment, of the annual convocation ceremony in June, but the demonstrators moved in anyway.
By the end of the day, dozens of tents were pitched King’s Collegewhich the demonstrators had renamed People’s Circle for Palestine (THE Popular Circle for Palestine
, free translation). A few police cars and security service vehicles were parked nearby.
There had been some commotion at the camp around supper time, in response to the presence of pro-Israel counter-protesters.
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Aerial view of the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto
Photo: Radio-Canada / Patrick Morrell
Suspension of students?
In a written statement, the University of Toronto said respect the rights of members of [sa] community to gather and demonstrate, within the limits of law and policy [de l’Université]
.
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Protesters set up around ten tents on the lawn of King’s College Circle, in the heart of the University of Toronto campus.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jérémie Bergeron
The establishment adds that protesters must not interfere with students, faculty and staff in their studies, work or research.
Our preference is to start with dialogue. Those who violate University policies or the law may face consequences.
The establishment cites, among other things, as a possible sanction the suspension
as provided for in its code of conduct.
Expectations from the University of Toronto
The University of Toronto says it informed protesters Thursday morning of its “expectations” for “peaceful” demonstrations, including a ban on setting up structures like tents on campus, engaging in hate speech, consuming alcohol or drugs, vaping and protesting after 10 p.m.
The protesters do not intend to comply until the university accedes to their demands.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters escort a counter-protester out of their encampment at the University of Toronto Thursday morning.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Chris Young
Fears of overflows
In an email exchange with Radio-Canada, the University of Toronto refuses to specify whether it called the police for reinforcements or whether it will seek a court injunction to dislodge the demonstrators.
The University recalls that its rector, Meric S. Gertler, met with representatives of the movement Occupy for Palestine at the beginning of April. The latter rejected their demands for an academic and financial boycott of Israel.
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Locations of Propalestine camps on Ontario universities: University of Ottawa, Western University and University of Toronto.
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The demonstrators accuse the administration of having ignored their requests for dialogue.
In a letter dated April 30, faculty members accused the administration of “misrepresentations” in its description of all campus buildings and grounds as “private property.” The administration seeks to give itself the power to determine which demonstrations are “authorized” and which are not
we can read in the letter.
In New York, police forcibly removed pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University. There has been violence between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators in the United States.
Rabbi Seth Goren, CEO of the Jewish group Hillel Ontario, also fears excesses in Toronto.
We fear the situation will get worse here.
For his part, professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto Alejandro Paz says the establishment should respond to students’ concerns.
I think the encampment was set up because the administration did not listen to the students, who are shocked by what is happening in Gaza and by Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
he said.
With information provided by Jérémie Bergeron, by Myriam Eddahia, by CBC News and by The Canadian Press
