At 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 5, a group of approximately 40 people smashed over 30 windows and tagged the Leacock Building, the McCall MacBain Arts Building, and the James Administration Building. The self-described anarchists entered campus from Rue McTavish with a banner reading, “Colonial institutions will fall.” Despite being on campus for less than 15 minutes, their actions disrupted classes and exams, including a CHEM120 midterm in Leacock 132 that evening. 

Alex*, U0 Arts, was writing a midterm in Leacock when the group began smashing windows. A bystander informed teaching assistants about the windows being broken outside the lecture hall, and instructed students who had finished the midterm to leave through a different exit.

“We just heard this glass smashing and people talking. And then this girl comes in, and she starts talking to one of the TAs and then all these people start running towards the door, and they just start telling us, ‘You can’t, you can’t get out from that door,’” Alex told The Tribune. 

An anonymous group of anarchists claimed responsibility for the vandalism, posting a statement online the next day that clarified their intent to destabilize the university. 

“For us, McGill is nothing but a symbol of a colonial and capitalist system, of which we call for the complete destruction. We encourage our comrades to extend the struggle towards the destruction of all oppressions, and to continue escalating towards revolution,” the statement read.

The statement explicitly denounced McGill’s New Vic Project and its historical involvement with MK-ULTRA mind control experiments, the university’s choice not to divest from companies with ties to Israel in December 2024, and the university’s choice to uproot a white pine tree planted during a Haudenosaunee peace ceremony in November 2024.

Independent journalist Cheï Lévesque, who followed the vandals as they entered campus, confirmed with The Tribune that the group was affiliated with an unspecified anarchist movement.

“My guess as to their motive is as good as [anyone’s], but it seems to be pointing to a myriad of ‘intersectional’ causes,” Lévesque wrote to The Tribune. “There was mention of ‘genocide,’ ‘warmongering,’ ‘financing genocide’ etc. chanted so I feel it is very connected to the Uni’s financing and investments [….] They also chanted stuff about [All Cops are Bastards].”

McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) provided a written statement to The Tribune condemning the events, claiming they caused panic among students, faculty, and staff.

“These acts were intended to intimidate our campus community and bully us into changing the University’s decision regarding proposals from some to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) the State of Israel,” the MRO wrote. “The University’s position rejecting BDS remains clear and firm.”

The BDS movement is a coalition of over 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, and civic groups that aims to challenge international support of Israel, and its genocide in Palestine. Representatives of BDS have recently criticized McGill for hosting companies who contribute to Israel’s surveillance and manufacturing industries at their Engineering TechFair, and for refusing to divest from corporations connected to Israel through arms manufacturing.

In their statement, the anarchists responsible for the vandalism underscored what they believe to be their right to property destruction as a form of civil disobedience in response to McGill’s refusal to accept the BDS movement’s demands.

“In the face of [McGill’s] condescension and their attachment to continuing the genocide, we say: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable!” the statement read.

At the moment, it is unclear what the cost of the vandalism will be for McGill, or what the timeline for repairs will look like. 

Leaving their exam in Leacock minutes after the anarchists smashed the building’s windows, Alex was thinking more about their midterm than about the motives behind the vandalism.

“I don’t know man,” Alex said. “It’s kind of crazy that that just had to happen while writing the midterm. I was just trying to get through that, and then you hear glass smashing. You get kind of paranoid. It’s kind of crazy.”

*Alex’s name was changed to preserve their identity.