Anti-Israel student activists at the University of Ottawa have set up an encampment despite a university administration warning that occupations would not be tolerated.
Their encampment comes as Canadian universities continue to be plagued by radical anti-Israel demonstrations inspired by those seen at Ivy League U.S. colleges and universities, notably Columbia.
University of Ottawa students first held a sit-in protest on the lawn of Tabaret Hall Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday, the daytime protest turned into an encampment, amid protesters being frustrated with administrative silence.
The encampment remained in place Wednesday.
Students at the encampment were seen wearing both keffiyeh scarves and medical masks, and chanted phrases like “uOttawa you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
They call their encampment the “liberated zone.”
Signs seen at the encampment include one that states Israel does not have a right to defend itself. Other signs call on the university to “divest” funds from the Jewish state.
At other universities, hateful signs have been seen at anti-Israel encampments.
At UBC, an individual brought a sign that tells those who believe in the existence of a Jewish nation to “f**k off,” while at McGill, signs calling for Intifada (armed uprising) and praising Aaron Bushell, a U.S. airman who set himself on fire for Gaza, were seen.
The University of Ottawa had previously warned that encampments would not be tolerated.
“While peaceful protest is permitted in appropriate public spaces on campus according to our policies and regulations, encampments and occupations will not be tolerated,” the university’s associate vice-president of student affairs Eric Bercier said in an Apr. 28 statement.
“We have forcefully and repeatedly affirmed that no incitement to violence or incidents of harassment or hate, including Islamophobia and Antisemitism, will be tolerated on our campuses,” the statement also said.
The university has not yet issued a public statement on the encampment, and did not respond to a request for comment from True North on the matter.
Meanwhile, over at McGill University, the first institution in Canada to get a woke American-style encampment, a bid to issue an injunction against those participating in the encampment was rejected by a judge Wednesday.
The request for an injunction was filed by a lawyer representing two McGill students, and sought to ban five anti-Israel groups from protesting within 100 meters of McGill University buildings for 10 days.
The students argued that radical anti-Israel activists occupying their campus made them feel unsafe.
While Superior Court Justice Chantal Masse rejected the plaintiffs’s bid for an injunction, she did call out the hateful messages and slogans attributed to people at the encampment, saying they were “troubling”.
Masse called on members of the encampment to “review the words used during the demonstrations and to refrain from using those likely to be perceived, rightly or wrongly, as calls for violence or as antisemitic remarks.”
In an interview with True North Monday, a McGill encampment organizer refused to condemn Hamas and its Oct. 7 attack on Israel or call for the return of hostages
When asked about the encampments this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out the fact that Jewish students feel unsafe on their campuses.
“Universities are places of learning, places for freedom of expression, freedom of thought, freedom of ideas, but that only works if people feel safe on campus,” said Trudeau. “Right now, right across the country, Jewish students do not feel safe. That’s not right.”
