Montreal police hit pro-Palestinian protesters at UQAM with batons during weekend clash
Posted May 21, 2024 5:25 pm.
Police armed with riot shields and batons clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters at the UQAM encampment Sunday afternoon.
The SPVM says police began dispersing protesters around 3:30 p.m. after they allegedly constructed a barricade on President Kennedy Avenue and de Maisonneuve Boulevard – between Jeanne Mance Street and St. Urbain Street.
According to the police’s version of events, some protesters “rushed towards the police officers” and assaulted them with “a variety of objects.”
Police responded by using chemical irritants and their batons on protesters, added SPVM spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils.
Protesters then allegedly returned to the UQAM encampment, at which point officers removed the barricades.
Chèvrefils says there was one infraction during the clash: assault with a weapon and obstructing a police officer. But no arrests were made, and no tickets were issued.
Police say there were no injuries or damages.
A spokesperson for UQAM says the university was “in no way associated with the police intervention,” though she confirmed the demonstrators were encampment occupants.
Multiple injuries, protesters say
Organizers of the protest offered their version of the clash. Across various social media posts, the group SolidaritePalestine à l’UQAM (SDHPP) says officers attacked demonstrators “without warning or notice of dispersal.”
“Several people were injured, including head injuries (falls and truncheon blows), facial injuries (tear gas grenades to the head and truncheon blows), minor wounds and contusions (truncheon blows and dispersal grenades),” the group wrote in an Instagram post.
Videos shared to social media confirm police batons were used on protesters.
SDHPP says demonstrators were forming a “temporary zone of autonomy for a liberated Palestine. The zone temporarily occupied the space, with music and banners, between two intersections one rue Président-Kennedy near Place des Arts.
“Demonstrators informed, sensitized and mobilized the population, inviting them to join the student mobilization.”
UQAM ‘will take action’
On Saturday, UQAM rector Stéphane Pallage warned occupants the university “will take action” if protesters continue to block its pavilions.
The university says “free movement on campus and access to the pavilions” are being impeded by the protesters, who erected a fenced-off encampment at the university’s science complex on May 12.
“Access is still hampered, despite repeated requests from the university since the camp was set up,” the university said in a news release Saturday morning. “The occupants have been informed that UQAM will take action if these central elements are still not respected.”
Pallage met protest organizers at the encampment Friday. The university called the meeting “part of the approach of openness and dialogue” – not a negotiation. Pallage told protesters he was concerned about their desire to “barricade their camp and hide behind masks.”
