McGill withdraws amnesty, toughens tone on pro-Palestinian protesters

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As the encampment at McGill’s downtown campus by pro-Palestinian protesters entered its 50th day, McGill’s administration announced it is ceasing discussions with the protesters and is withdrawing an offer of amnesty to students involved in the protest.

In an emailed message to the McGill community on Tuesday morning, university president Deep Saini said “the circumstances that we are experiencing go well beyond McGill University. Rather, they represent an issue of grave and profound concern to civil society more broadly.”

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Saini said that over the course of the last 50 days, “we have seen a series of completely unacceptable incidents take place and have sought assistance from the police to address these matters. … As it has become clear that no fruitful outcome will result from these talks, we are ceasing discussions.”

Saini repeated his description of the encampment as “an unauthorized and illegal occupation of McGill property” that has “led to alarming behaviours,” including “targeted harassment and intimidation of students, staff and faculty,” the “forceful entry and illegal occupation of the James Administration Building,” the “hanging of a political figure’s effigy at the Roddick Gates” and “incendiary and provocative rhetoric, signage and graffiti both at the encampment and throughout the campus that intimidate, inflict harm and are often experienced as antisemitic.”

Saini wrote that given the repeated refusal of protesters to meet with the administration to negotiate, “a limited disciplinary amnesty to students and staff prior to June 15” has been withdrawn and “the university will pursue disciplinary processes against individuals participating in the encampment to the full extent outlined in our policies. We are also investigating the full spectrum of legal recourses available to us to recover from the damages incurred.”

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Students at the encampment responded by holding a news conference to say they have no intention of decamping and were not concerned by the threat of disciplinary measures. They insisted it is McGill’s administration that has been refusing the protesters’ requests to resume discussions, most recently on June 14.

“Our administration not only refused to respond to our request, but they publicly lied about it,” said Rama Al Malah, a McGill student and member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill. “They are showing once again that they are not engaging in good faith. On the contrary, they have gone to unacceptable and ridiculous lengths to repress their students, from lying publicly, smearing and slandering and inciting violence against their students to unleashing riot cops who brutalized, assaulted and arrested students and community members whose only charge is protesting against a genocide.”

She said McGill invests $20 million in weapons manufacturing companies, and the university has made no meaningful proposal towards divestment. “They keep orienting us towards institutional mechanisms that have historically failed the student body or (that don’t) achieve divestment in a reasonable time frame.”

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McGill professor Michelle Hartman spoke at the encampment news conference on behalf of herself and “many other professors” who support the encampment. She accused McGill’s administration of “lies, misdirections, disinformation and evasions which divert our attention from where it rightfully should be, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and McGill’s complicity in it.”

“At McGill, as elsewhere, students have historically been at the forefront of social justice struggles.” Hartman said. “While supporting them in taking their brave stance, we have regularly watched the administration of our university publicly vilify them, the students, the most recent example of which happened today where the president of the university abused his power by publicly spreading disinformation to the entire McGill community.”

These events come a day after Montreal police announced they had opened an investigation and are consulting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concerning an Instagram post from SPHR McGill advertising a “youth summer program” at the encampment. The photo accompanying the post depicted young people wearing kaffiyehs, reading books, with some holding rifles.

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Montreal police said on Monday they have opened an investigation into that post and are consulting the RCMP on how to proceed.

Jewish leaders and several federal and provincial politicians have denounced the post as an explicit incitement to violence, with some declaring it a hate crime.

On Tuesday, the encampment spokespeople said they do not regret publishing the image. Al Malah said the image “is a historical photo that depicts the relationship between study and struggle. This encampment has been an open space for the Jewish community who have been coming here to support us as well as the rest of the community. We are committed to providing an educational space. … The real question is why are people not focusing on the fact that our administration is investing in real guns and real weapons that are currently perpetrating massacres and violence in Gaza as we speak.”

At a news briefing on Monday afternoon, Montreal police spokesperson David Shane called the image in the Instagram post “in very bad taste” but did not go so far as to label it a hate crime.

“At this moment what we can see in that (post), there is no group identified. One of the elements for it to be declared a hate crime, there has to be one of 14 discriminated-against groups targeted. So we don’t have that. We are looking at how to proceed. It’s clear that when we look at it, it’s in very bad taste. It is the kind of thing that makes the population insecure. We understand that. That’s why we have opened an investigation and we will get to the bottom of it.”

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Earlier Monday, hundreds of members of Montreal’s Jewish community and their allies protested at City Hall, calling on the city to do more to counter antisemitism.

At the SPVM’s news briefing, Shane gave an update on measures the police force has been taking to deal with the increase in hate crimes and hate incidents against members of both the Jewish and the Arab/Muslim communities of Montreal since the current war in the Middle East began.

He said the SPVM is in close contact with representatives of the Jewish and Arab/Muslim communities, and meetings are held regularly to “exchange views and adapt our actions accordingly.”

Between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 12, 2024, 146 hate crimes and 104 hate incidents have been recorded by the SPVM against both groups combined. To date, 31 files have been submitted to the director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP), and one suspect has been arrested in connection with a shooting at a Jewish school in the Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough on Nov. 12.

He said SPVM officers have supervised more than 250 demonstrations over that period, almost all of which took place “in an orderly fashion.”

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With regard to the pro-Palestine encampment, he said the police have no legal foundation to dismantle it at this point. McGill has applied to the Superior Court of Quebec to have it ordered dismantled and legal proceedings are still underway.

He said the SPVM will intervene “if situations require,” as it did with the James Administration Building occupation on June 6, when 15 people were arrested. Of them, 13 were charged with breaking and entering, and two with obstructing a police officer.

He said the police cannot intervene until the Superior Court decides the question of whether the university’s right to enjoy its private property supersedes the right to freedom of expression. He noted the university campus is not the same as a private backyard, for example, as the campus is usually open to the public. Judges have twice ruled that there is no urgent reason to remove the encampment before the question is decided, he noted.

Of the 250 hate crimes and hate incidents recorded, 70 were against members of the Arab and/or Muslim communities and 180 against members of Jewish communities. (Hate crimes in this context are criminal acts that are motivated by prejudice on the basis of religion. Hate incidents are actions that are not listed as crimes in the criminal code, but that may affect people’s sense of safety, such as the distribution of offensive material, insults and offensive gestures. The SPVM monitors hate incidents in order to intervene before hate crimes are committed.)

There were 11 hate crimes against property associated with Arab/Muslim communities and 43 hate crimes against property associated with Jewish communities. There were a total of 33 hate crimes and 26 hate incidents reported against members of Arab/Muslim communities and 59 hate crime and 78 hate incidents against members of Jewish communities.

Anyone who sees or is a victim of a hate crime or incident should contact 911 in case of emergency, or their local police station or Infocrime Montreal, where they can report their complaint anonymously at 514-393-1133 or infocrimemontreal.ca.

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