McGill moving forward with injunction request against pro-Palestinian encampment

McGill University announced Friday afternoon it is moving to the next stage of its injunction request against the pro-Palestinian encampment that was set up on its downtown campus three weeks ago. 

The university released a statement at 4 p.m., two days after Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc St-Pierre rejected a provisional injunction request to have the camp dismantled. St-Pierre wrote in his decision that the school had failed to demonstrate an urgent need to dismantle the camp. 

Today, McGill said it was moving forward with a request for an interlocutory injunction, the next stage as it seeks to have the encampment permanently banned.

McGill is seeking an injunction to have the protesters barred from "camping or occupying in any manner whatsoever" as well as from protesting in any way that is in violation of university policy on its downtown campus.

The order would also authorize bailiffs tasked with serving the judgment to "call upon any peace officer to assist them."

Montreal police have so far taken a passive approach to the encampment, occasionally monitoring it from across the street. There have been exceptions, including earlier this month when a large pro-Israel counter-protest took place on Sherbrooke Street in front of campus and on Friday afternoon when a small group of Jewish activists approached the camp with signs that said, "We witnessed Oct. 7. Ask us anything."

Ysabella Hazan, a 24-year-old University of Ottawa law graduate, was among them. CBC News arrived shortly after she and another man were encouraged to leave the grounds by Montreal police officers, who by 1:30 p.m. were monitoring the entrance to campus via the Roddick Gates.

Hazan, who appeared to be accompanied by private security guards, stood on the sidewalk outside the gates, carrying one of those signs. She said they had wanted to have a conversation with the encampment protesters, but that they were soon confronted with chanting and drumming.

"Why did we come here? Number one, to tell the Jewish story from a Jewish lens, from a lens of Jews who are connected to Israel, not from Jews who are tokenized," Hazan said, referring to pro-Palestinian Jews who have joined encampment protests.

"I see Palestinians as my cousins, as my family. And I don't want to see anybody, especially anybody who's innocent, die. It's terrible. But when we misclassify it and we add terms like 'genocide,' it's appropriating, first of all, the Holocaust," she said. 

Kieran Ricardo, a philosophy and history student at Concordia University, arrived to the encampment Friday shortly after Hazan was asked to leave. He had responded to an online call from protesters for backup in response to counter-protesters. 

"I believe that it's an obligation to be here and stand in solidarity with the students," Ricardo said.

Shortly after Hazan left, a separate group who identified themselves as Jewish students from McGill and Concordia also attempted to speak with encampment protesters. They were met with tense looks and people slowly gathering in front of them.

The group settled on a bench in front of the encampment, before being asked to leave by police. One of its members, Michael Ishayak, a finance student at Concordia, said he'd previously been told by protesters to "Go back to Europe." When he told them his family was from Iraq, they said, "Go back to Iraq!"