#Montreal: Student protesters at #McGill encampment determined to stay after judge rejects injunction (CBC, 2024-05-01)
"Students participating in the pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University's downtown campus drew sighs of relief Wednesday around noon, when news arrived that a Quebec Superior Court judge had rejected an injunction request that would have forced them to leave."
"In Wednesday's ruling, Justice Chantal Masse wrote the plaintiffs failed to show that the protests were causing irreparable harm, nor was there any indication at this point that the protesters intended to block access to exams or McGill's buildings."
"Masse wrote that if she were to approve an injunction to remove protesters, their 'freedom of expression and to gather peacefully would be affected significantly.'"
Le premier ministre François Legault demande aux policiers du #SPVM de démanteler le campement propalestinien à l’Université #McGill, alors que des organisations pro-israéliennes se préparent à manifester sur les lieux jeudi. #polqc#MTL#Montreal
Things are getting tense in front of McGill.
I'm really impressed with the demonstrators in the encampment. This whole time they've remained consistent in their stance and have managed to de-escalate situations repeatedly. All this despite attempts to escalate by counter-protesters and the McGill administration.
#Montreal#McGill#encampment : "Spokesperson for Montreal police said that "no crime is being committed" at the encampment and the situation is a civil matter. The spokesperson said officers will continue to monitor the demonstration and are ready to enforce a court injunction if it is granted."
What the stories about the anti-Gaza War encampment at #McGill are missing is that the encampment is located in the same place where the university holds its commencement ceremony, an event occurring at the end of May.
I'm not sure if McGill would be more tolerant if the encampment were elsewhere, but I'm sure they want to re-establish control over that field soon.
According to mass media, these are pro-Palestinian protests, but what if it was in fact an encampment in protest of #McGill University’s involvement in the atrocities unfolding before our eyes.
Some of the students in #Montreal standing up today against #genocide are the same students who navigated a pandemic and managed to stay on track with their academic pursuits. May they remain strong and safe.
Curious about #university#divestment movements, I poked around student newspaper archives today. While some discussion of South Africa took place at the U. of #Toronto earlier, 1983 looks like the moment when it took off. However, this relatively well-known case wasn't the first to garner attention at UofT and other Canadian universities (notably U. of Winnipeg). That honour seems to go to Noranda, a mining company heavily involved in Pinochet's Chile. #BDS#histodons 1/ https://archive.org/details/varsity
Students at #McGill University, where the largest camp currently is, seem to have focused initially on South Africa. While the beginnings of the movement there look to have taken place around the same time as at UofT, the main student newspaper (the McGill Daily) includes far more material on divestment from an earlier date (1980). 2/
All of this makes me want to do more university history, especially to get a better handle on how institutions (especially these two - McGill and UofT) shifted from a more-or-less hand-to-mouth existence (where they were in the mid-19th century, the period in which I know their history best), to the endowment-toting behemoths they've become. I've got reading to do! 3/