Pro-Palestinian encampment: the Superior Court hears UQAM’s request for an injunction | Middle East, the eternal conflict

Around forty people were present at the Montreal courthouse on Friday to hear the request for an injunction from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) aimed at partially dismantling the pro-Palestinian encampment installed on its campus since mid-May.

Given this audience, largely in support of the encampment, the University’s request had to be heard in a larger room. More than 80 people listened to the online hearing.

Before the discussions even began, the Superior Court judge took a moment to make his comments on the encampment set up since May 12.

From the outset, the judge said he recognized the right to demonstrate, but he also said he was sensitive to the security issues reported by officials of theUQAM in the affidavit filed with the registry.

The university has expressed concern about what is happening in the encampment, and says protesters have been seen carrying cans of gasoline – something protesters deny – and nail bars behind the barricaded fences . Because surveillance cameras are blocked or damaged, it is impossible for the establishment to know what exactly is happening on its grounds, management says.

The judge recalled that Friday’s debate was not about the right to demonstrate, but rather about the ability of demonstrators to do so safely and peacefully.

The magistrate must make his decision next week.

Remember that, unlike McGill University, theUQAM does not demand the complete dismantling of the encampment on its campus.

The request presented by theUQAM Friday is a request for a provisional interlocutory injunction, with which she tries to prove the urgency of acting. If granted, this order could last a maximum of 10 days.

Subsequently, the University will submit two other requests for an injunction – one temporary, the other permanent – ​​which would have the effect of extending the injunction, then finally, prohibiting the alleged behavior indefinitely.

The camps hold on

These requests for an injunction do not dampen the will of the demonstrators at the UQAM camp.

Coming to listen to the hearing at the courthouse this morning, William Sloan defends the peaceful nature of the camp located at the Science Complex, in the Quartier des spectacles.

Blocking a street, blocking a sidewalk or blocking an entrance peacefully, that’s what Gandhi did, that’s what Martin Luther King Jr did. […] Using your body to assert something is not violent.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators took turns day and night at the McGill encampment.

We must move, we must speak, it’s freedom of expression, says Ahmed Maalej. This Tunisian native, who arrived in Canada five years ago, participated in the revolution in 2011 that brought down President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Mr. Maalej demonstrates daily in front of McGill University for the Palestinian cause. We come from countries of dictators, we want to be free here.

The loss of life in Gaza since October is incredible, and the least I can do is come here after work every day to demonstrateexplains Yara Hammoi, a teacher who studied at McGill.

I hope that this movement will have a greater impact, an institutional impact, an impact that will finally help the children of Gaza.

Several demonstrators are inspired by students at New York’s Columbia University, where the pro-Palestinian encampment movement was born in North America. As in the late 1960s, Columbia was the epicenter of student demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of the American army from Vietnam and against apartheid in South Africa.

At Columbia University before, when it was for apartheid, it was the same thing and we called them terrorists, we told them they were crazy, but today we look at them and congratulate them for what they did. I am convinced that in ten years, it will be the same thing […] We are on the right side of History, I can guarantee it.testifies Alexi Cordeiro-Beaupré, who also came to demonstrate at McGill.

Furthermore, if Mr. Cordeiro-Beaupré demonstrates with his face uncovered, he says he understands those who choose to hide their identity.

There are McGill students who are here and who are risking everything to be here. They are risking their future, their careers and potentially being in prison and, even at that, we believe so much in the cause and it is so important. It’s more than just us, just our future. It’s a genocide that we have the potential to stop everyone togetherpleads the student.

With information from Sophie Langlois and Charlotte Dumoulin