Anti-Israel protesters block access to McGill University buildings

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Professors moved classes online and protesters blocked access to classrooms at McGill University this week as a three-day student strike kicked off.

“Anti-Israel protesters are physically blocking access to lecture halls inside the Bronfman building and disrupting classes, preventing fellow students from accessing their right to education,” wrote the pro-Israel advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada on X on Wednesday.

“Protest is a protected right — intimidation is not. No student should have to choose between their safety and their education. Disrupting classes, harassing students and faculty, and hijacking campus spaces is not activism, it’s dangerous behaviour that has no place on a Canadian campus.”

On Thursday, Montreal police were on site to moderate protests and counter-protests.

“Police officers were there to make sure that those two groups (don’t) merge together and commit any criminal acts,” Agent Manuel Coupre told National Post in an interview.

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No arrests were made. Police said they arrived around 12:30 p.m., having been made aware that there would be two protests on Thursday. The protesters gathered around 2 p.m., and left around 3:30 p.m, police said.

“We do know that some protesters gathered inside the building, but most of our police operation (was) outside,” Coupre said.

The protest began on Wednesday and will run until Friday. Videos posted online showed protesters wearing masks and keffiyehs, protesting in classrooms and on campus on Wednesday. In an emailed statement, McGill said 20 classes were disrupted, but the majority continued as scheduled.

“(On Thursday), more classes had to be cancelled and some protesters engaged in acts of vandalism. McGill University personnel is at work, to reduce disruptions and facilitate access to classrooms, in collaboration with the Montreal police,” the statement said.

Beginning Friday, access to university buildings will require a student or employee card, McGill said in the statement.

The protest was organized by the Students’ Society of McGill University, which is calling on the university to drop its investments in weapons manufacturers that it says are linked to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Last June, in the face of a protest encampment on school grounds, McGill President Deep Saini announced that the school would explore divestment from all arms manufacturers — regardless of any geopolitical considerations.

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Dymetri Taylor, the president of the students’ society, told the Montreal Gazette that protesters targeted lecture halls in multiple buildings.

Taylor told the Montreal Gazette that class disruptions were not part of the voluntary strike, and said the students’ society has repeatedly denounced the protesters’ tactics.

One video, posted to social media by B’nai Brith Canada, shows a student addressing a lecture hall, telling people that protesters are trying to get students to not attend class, “to show support for Palestine.” The student encourages others to leave.

“We’re going to be making noise outside,” the student says.

Another video shows a female student trying to enter a lecture hall that’s blocked by demonstrators.

“I want to go to class. Stop,” she says. The student pushes past the protesters.

On Wednesday, a form that circulated among students, titled “Report Your Non-Compliant Prof,” asked for class times, room numbers, and screenshots of professors’ messages regarding those teachers who continued to teach during the student strike.

It was shared on Instagram by a former student group, Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR McGill). The group, the Montreal Gazette reported, had previously lost its official status as a university student club.

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Angela Campbell, McGill’s associate provost, condemned the form, calling it “totally unethical, unacceptable and damaging to our community,” in an email to students, and describing it as an “intimidation tactic” in violation of McGill’s student code of conduct.

“The form is there as a channel by which students can inform picket organizers of their non-compliant profs,” a representative of SPHR McGill told the Gazette.

Also on Wednesday, protesters and non-student supporters waved Palestinian flags at McGill’s Roddick Gates. At the student union, copies of the student-run newspaper The Tribune carried a front-page headline that read: “Students, you must strike for Palestine. No justice, no class.”

The paper also ran an editorial, which argued, “All undergraduate students should see it as a moral responsibility to strike.”

Last year, McGill was the site of a lengthy standoff between the university and anti-Israel protesters.

National Post, with additional reporting from Montreal Gazette

Editors’ note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the students’ society denounced the class disruptions.

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