Quebec Superior Court judge rejects McGill injunction request to remove encampment

A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected a provisional injunction request by McGill University to remove pro-Palestinian encampment activists from its front lawn in downtown Montreal. 

Justice Marc St-Pierre said in his decision issued Wednesday morning that the university failed to justify the urgent need to dismantle the camp.

McGill made the injunction request on Monday. In the request, the university's lawyers argued that the encampment was unsafe, posing a risk of escalating tensions on campus and preventing McGill from holding its convocation ceremonies at its usual outdoor location.

But St-Pierre dismissed those arguments. He said no serious or violent incident had occurred at the encampment since it was established on April 27, and even a confrontation with counter-protesters was peaceful.

He also noted the university had already arranged to move its convocation ceremonies.

St-Pierre's ruling came as a blow to the university's leaders, who have tried to have the encampment removed. Negotiations between the university and the protesters have so far not been fruitful. The protesters say they will stay put until the university divests from companies with ties to Israel and cuts ties with Israeli academic institutions.

St-Pierre opened his ruling by saying that the injunction request comes amid a wave of pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses across North America connected to the events in the Gaza Strip, where "dozens of thousands of Palestinians are dead, injured or displaced by the Israeli army." 

Shortly after the decision was published, McGill released a statement saying it was "disappointed in today's ruling," and was analyzing it.

The university noted Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantale Masse had said protesters were "unlawfully occupying" the area when on May 1 she, too, rejected an injunction request to have the encampment removed from the property. That request had been made on behalf of two McGill students, not the institution itself.

"Due to rising tensions and safety, security and public health concerns, and having exhausted all operational protocols available, the university sought a provisional injunction, which would recognize McGill's property rights and the urgency of the matter," the school wrote in its emailed statement Wednesday.

Student activists made statements outside the encampment at 2 p.m.

Rama Al Malah, who is with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, said the decision reflected a recognition of the students' right to protest and that the group hopes it will force the university to realize its legal efforts against the encampment are more costly than "answering their demands."

"This sets an incredible precedent not only for the McGill community but for the Palestinian movement at large which, despite attempts of defamation and repression, has refused to be stifled," Al Malah said.

Sibel Ataogul, a lawyer who represents the Students' Society of McGill University and the Association of McGill Professors of Law, two associations named as defendants in the injunction request, said that her clients disagreed with McGill's assertion that its campus was exclusively the university's private property.