Walk-outs, sit-ins, pickets in Montreal in support of Palestinians in Gaza

Montreal police arrested several protesters and dragged them out of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Montreal riding office after a sit-in Thursday to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

At the same time, students from three universities in Montreal walked out of classes and into downtown streets and picketed a bank branch.

The actions were in connection with an international call to action by pro-Palestinian organizations demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel.

Despite a day of snow and freezing rain, students from Concordia, McGill and Université de Montréal skipped class and picketed the Scotiabank office on Sherbrooke Street, near McGill's campus, where they stayed until about 4 p.m.

Earlier, the students had gathered at their respective campuses, denouncing their schools' "complicity in this genocide" by having financial ties to companies that do business in Israel, before meeting up at the bank. 

Scotiabank is a prime target of the Canadian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which encourages boycotts of corporations with ties to Israeli arms manufacturing.

The bank is a major shareholder in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons producer that was under scrutiny as its weapons technology was used in the West Bank.

LISTEN | Activists on Scotiabank's stake in Elbit Systems:

"Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel's crimes," protesters chanted.

Concordia students joined those at McGill, cancelling their own sit-in, after violence broke out on campus Wednesday, leading to an arrest.

Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, one of the organizers of the picket line, said the movement was targeting big institutions to send a clear message — the violence in Gaza needs to end immediately.

"Our money makes a difference and that a lot of the money that they spend is going specifically into funding Israel and funding weapons that are killing innocent people," said Bechelany-Lynch.

Despite an increase in polarization between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups in Montreal, Bechelany-Lynch said there is evidence of "beautiful solidarity" between Jewish and Arab people, along with a shift in public opinion.

"I think more and more people are seeing what's happening, seeing that over 10,000 people have been killed, about 4,000 of them children," they said.