Quebec premier calls for anti-Israel encampment at McGill to be dismantled

TORONTO — Quebec Premier Francois Legault says the encampment at Montreal’s McGill University should be dismantled as more students erected pro-Palestinian camps across some of Canada’s largest universities, demanding they divest from groups with ties to Israel.

While McGill had requested police intervention, law enforcement has not stepped in to clear the encampment and does not respond to news agency Reuters’ questions about their plans. Students also set up encampments at Canadian schools including the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and the University of Ottawa.

“We want the camp to be dismantled. We trust the police, let them do their job,” a spokesperson for Legault says.

There was also a pro-Israel counter-protest in Montreal on Thursday. The two sides were kept separate.

On Thursday morning, students at the University of Toronto set up an encampment in a fenced-off grassy space at the school’s downtown campus where some 100 protesters gathered with dozens of tents.

According to a statement from organizers, the encampment will stay until the university discloses its investments, divests from any that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and ends partnerships with some Israeli academic institutions.

A university spokesperson tells Reuters it’s “in dialogue with the protesters” and that, as of midday, the encampment was “not disruptive to normal university activities.”