Protesters set up pro-Palestinian encampment at Queen’s University in Kingston

A pro-Palestinian encampment at Queen's University in Kingston was set up on May 10. Since then, the university has called out what it says were aggressive acts.

A pro-Palestinian encampment at Queen’s University in Kingston is joining a network of similar encampments seen at university and college campuses across the country.

Protesters at Queen’s said they plan to stay until their demands — that the university pull out of its investments in Israeli companies and the Israeli military — are met.

This comes after encampments were set up on other campuses across the country, most notably at McGill University, where the administration said it is heading to court to obtain an injunction that would force protesters to clear out.

The encampment at Queen’s began on May 10. At the time, protesters said they had hoped to speak at a university board of trustees meeting to ask the university to divest but were refused entry. A video from a group called the Queen’s University Faculty Observer’s Network shows a few protesters being taken out of the building where the meeting was taking place.

Some protesters have accused campus security of using excessive force in handling the incident on May 10.

“They wouldn’t hear them in an open session as mandated in their bylaws to be heard,” said Jake Morrow, a graduate student at the university who was at the protest.

He said the plan had never been to set up an encampment until after the incident with campus security.

Global News has identified the two men out of uniform in the video as head of campus security Chris Scott in the black jacket and Joel Keenleyside, manager of security operations, in the beige trench coat. A request for comment from them and the university on the incident was not answered.