By Fakiha Baig and Paola Loriggio
Tents, banners, and flags cropped up at the centre of the University of Toronto's downtown campus early Thursday as students set up an encampment to call on the institution to cut its ties with Israel over the ongoing war in Gaza.
The students said they breached a fence that had been installed around an area on campus known as King's College Circle around 4 a.m. to establish their protest encampment in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
They said they were joining students at other universities in Canada and the United States in setting up encampments to call on their schools to disclose ties with the Israeli government and divest from Israeli companies.
"We're planning to stay as long as we need to get our demands. What we're doing here is basically nothing compared to what the people in Palestine are going through," Mohammad Yassin, a fourth-year student with relatives in Gaza and a refugee camp in Lebanon, said at the encampment.
"This is not just some some childish thing — we're here just to make our voice heard, and we're standing firm, and we want our demands to be heard. We want the university to acknowledge that the students are not in agreement with what it's doing."
Erin Mackey, one of the protest organizers, said students "from all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of religions" were on site, as well as a number of faculty members.
"We are all standing together in solidarity, demanding that our university, that we all attend, that we are all part of it, is no longer complicit in this genocide."
The International Court of Justice is investigating whether Israel has committed acts of genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza, with any ruling expected to take years. Israel has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and accused the court of bias.
Israel's campaign in Gaza was launched after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 men, women, and children hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
The war has wreaked vast destruction and brought a humanitarian disaster, with several thousand Palestinians in northern Gaza facing imminent famine, according to the United Nations.
Mackey, who is with the group U of T Occupy for Palestine, said students had occupied a building outside the university president's office a few weeks ago and eventually were able to meet with him but were not satisfied with the outcome of that discussion.
"I have spent four years here and spent a lot of money on tuition, and I'm graduating, which is really exciting. But ... there are many, many students who are just like me [in Gaza] who should be graduating and celebrating, but unfortunately they are unable to do so," Mackey said.
By late Thursday morning, dozens of tents could be seen set up at the centre of King's College Circle — which protesters said they were now calling the People's Circle for Palestine — with a few police cars and private-security vehicles seen parked nearby.
Some held up pro-Palestinian banners, and signs were put up in trees. Some people were seen sitting together on tarps laid out on the grass, while others walked around. Several wore keffiyehs, a checkered scarf typically worn in Arab cultures that has come to symbolize, in part, solidarity with Palestinians.
Signs announcing the "temporary closure" of the grounds were taped to a fence that protest organizers said was put up last week. The signs said the closure was "for protection due to concerns about unauthorized activity."
Mackey said that protesters had been told they would have to vacate the encampment by 10 p.m. but that the group had no plans to leave.
A written notice given to protesters said that the university respects its members right to assemble and protest but that unauthorized activities such as encampments "are considered trespassing."
In a written statement Thursday, the university said its campuses remain open and noted that protest activities "must not interfere with the ability of students, faculty, librarians and staff to learn, teach, research and work."
"Our preference is to start with dialogue," it wrote. "Those who contravene university policy or the law risk the consequences set out in various laws and policies such as the Code of Student Conduct, which could include suspension."
Chandni Desai, an assistant professor at the university, attended the protest to show support. She said many of her students are from the region, but even those with no personal connection have been affected by the conflict.
"We have international students that are from that region that are watching their entire infrastructure being destroyed, hospitals, schools, universities — every single university has been bombed," she said.
"Our students are angry; our students are compassionate. Our students are brilliant critical thinkers. ... They're trying to put into action some of the things that they're learning in their classrooms when it comes to especially thinking about international law, when it comes to thinking about justice, when it comes to thinking about issues around race and racism and colonial violence."
Ted Turner, a retired electrical worker, stopped by the demonstration to show solidarity and drop off toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
"I may come back in a couple of days to see what else they need. But I'm feeling pretty positive seeing the students here," said the 77-year-old.
The encampment at the University of Toronto comes as pro-Palestinian activists have pitched their tents on campuses across the country in recent days, including encampments at McGill University in Montreal, the University of Ottawa, and the University of British Columbia.
Police on Thursday blocked off the main gates to McGill’s downtown campus, where pro-Palestinian activists have been camping since Saturday, ahead of a counter protest by Israel supporters. Officers on foot, bicycle, and horseback patrolled the school grounds, ensuring the groups stayed apart.
Inside, supporters surrounded the fence that bordered the tent encampment in McGill’s lower field, clapping and chanting as a person on a megaphone shouted slogans such as "why are you in riot gear? There is no violence here.”
On the sidewalk outside, a smaller group of people formed, waving Canadian and Israeli flags in front of a large screen on a trailer showing a documentary on the October 7 attack.
Quebec Premier François Legault said any encampments at McGill would need to be taken down.
"I can understand the situation; we all worry about what's happening in Gaza. People can show their positions during demonstrations — these are allowed. But they cannot have encampments on university sites," he said.
"The encampment at McGill is illegal ... The law has to be respected, and I expect the police to dismantle these camps, and it's what McGill asked for. I'll let police decide how and when they do it, but the camps have to be dismantled."
— With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2024.
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