UQAM injunction request against pro-Palestinian encampment on campus in court Friday

Lawyers for Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) were in court Friday for a hearing on an injunction request against pro-Palestinian protesters, after the group set up an encampment on campus nearly two weeks ago.

The court hearing began on Friday morning at the Montreal courthouse.

UQAM is asking the Quebec Superior Court to prohibit protesters from setting up tents and other material within three meters of campus buildings.

It also wants protesters stop allegedly obstructing access to its campus, damaging surveillance cameras, engaging in vandalism and destroying university property.

In court, UQAM lawyers said they don’t want to stop the protest or encampment, they just want to ensure the security of everyone, free movement on the campus and the buildings, as well as the unblocking of security cameras.

“For more than a week, the University has reiterated to the occupants of the encampment that it is essential for the community to have full access to the pavilions of the Science Complex and to be able to circulate freely. The importance of ensuring a safe environment for all, including the occupants of the camp, was also reiterated,” said the university in a press release on Thursday.

The university claims the camp is not only made up of UQAM students, but other people or groups who have installed themselves there.

On Friday in court, one of the supporters of the encampment, William Sloan, part of Palestinian and Jewish Unity, said his group helped the encampment and on Thursday night during an assembly, encampment participants decided to allow free movement on the campus and to buildings.

“There was an assembly last night where, unanimously, the people in the assembly in the camp decided that there were certain things that are requested by the UQAM that they’re ready to go along with,” he said. “Before things got started, the judge was encouraging the parties to try to discuss things amongst themselves, to try to arrive at certain conclusions, perhaps, that would simplify his task. If they can agree to things and he doesn’t have to order them, or he can just cover what they’ve agreed upon.”

Sloan further explained how they set up fences to prevent conflicts between other parties.

“I think the judge recognizes that the idea of the fences around the camp is more to prevent provocation than anything else,” he said. “And he referred to that. If you don’t have fences, then people who are not exactly friendly may get into it. And then there could be kerfuffles, to say the least.”

Lawyers representing the pro-Palestinian encampment said there is no longer a safety issue at the campus and therefore not an urgent need to have an injunction because encampment participants are said to have agreed to ensure that access to buildings will no longer be blocked. 

“As I understand it, and as an affidavit testifies, last night at the General Assembly of the encampment, which is how they make their decisions, unanimously it was voted that all access, all emergency exits from UQAM buildings that exit into the encampment not only are unblocked, but actually have a free passage to the public roadway,” said Maxwell Silverman, a lawyer for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UQAM.

McGill University also requested an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from their downtown Montreal campus last week, but were denied due to a lack of urgency, as it’s not blocking access to the school. The encampment outside UQAM’s science complex now has about 40 tents.

“We’ve asked the court to reject the injunction altogether. We don’t believe that given the vote last night to allow the passage from any emergency exit, we don’t believe that there’s any urgent need for the court to intervene on these questions,” said Silverman.

The group SolidaritePalestine à l’UQAM (SDHPP) responded to the injunction request by writing, “Come to the camp to support us or come to the court hearing this Friday at 9 a.m.” Adding, “United we stand.”

Since the encampment started on May 12, protesters have demanded that the university cut ties with Israeli institutions and disclose its links to Israel, and that the Quebec government cancel plans for a diplomatic office in the country.

The university’s court application says the inner courtyard of the Pierre-Dansereau Science Complex is being occupied by about 40 tents.

UQAM says protesters are posing a safety risk by blocking an emergency exit, being in possession of gasoline canisters and iron bars, and potentially “overloading” the university’s electrical network with unauthorized extension cords.

‘We are open to examining with our students’ other avenues that could be consensual, for example welcoming Palestinian academics affected by the conflict, as part of the Scholars at Risk network that UQAM joined in 2017,” said UQAM rector Stéphane Pallage.

UQAM has previously said that its “Foundation has no investment in armaments, having adopted a responsible investment policy many years ago, and that the University does not currently have a mobility agreement nor framework agreement with Israeli universities.”

Earlier this week, Montreal police (SPVM) 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.”

However, organizers of the protest claimed that 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.

The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, and taking some 250 others hostage. More than 35,000 Palestinians have died in the subsequent military operation in Gaza.

Justice Louis-Joseph Gouin says he will likely not give his decision on the injunction request until Monday, but did say that he wants to ensure that the protest remains peaceful.

“The judge, before things got started, was encouraging the parties to try to discuss things amongst themselves, to try to arrive at certain conclusions, perhaps, that would simplify his task, if they can agree to things and he doesn’t have to order them,” said Sloan.

-with files from La Press Canadienne