A crowd of approximately 150 McGill community members chanted, “McGill, McGill, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” outside the university’s Roddick Gates on Oct. 5. The demonstrators formed the McGill student contingent attending the International Day of Action march and rally organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)’s Montreal branch. Beginning at Roddick Gates, the group marched to the Place des Arts, where it met up with the larger PYM protest. After several speakers addressed the crowd on the corner of Rue Saint-Urbain and Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, the protest moved down Boulevard René-Lévesque toward the Montreal Consulate of Israel.
While the PYM march was meant to mark one year of the Israeli state’s genocide that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, McGill community members aimed in particular to address the university’s response to pro-Palestinian activism on campus. The refrain of “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” recurred throughout the protest in reference to McGill’s investments in companies complicit in Israel’s siege on Gaza and Lebanon, such as weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which is a direct arms supplier to the Israel Defence Forces.
In an email to The Tribune, the McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) explained that McGill’s Board of Governors’ (BoG) Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility will review potential divestment from companies that derive a dominant portion of their direct revenues from the production of military weapons in December 2024. Until Oct. 1, staff and students were able to provide input on this issue to the BoG through a webform.
When asked to comment specifically on McGill’s commitment to review their direct equity investments, an organizer of the McGill student contingent who wished to remain unnamed expressed frustration that after decades-long calls for divestment, feedback is only being solicited now.
“This is just another tactic for McGill to delay and shut down the student movement, and we will not let them,” they said.
The student cohort—organized largely by Solidarity for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (formerly Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights) at McGill and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) McGill—aimed to address other McGill-specific issues, including the increased security measures McGill has taken in response to pro-Palestinian student activism. Addressing a group of cycling police officers monitoring the protest at Roddick Gates, the student coalition chanted, “Who keeps us safe? We keep us safe!”
The MRO wrote that McGill’s decision to restrict campus access and to move as many academic activities as possible online on Oct. 7 was devised in close collaboration with Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal.
“[The measures] facilitate the continuity of teaching, research and other activities, support the wellbeing of all at McGill, and seek to deter and prevent activities that violate the law and our policies, thereby destabilizing our campus at a very sensitive time,” the MRO wrote.
The contingent representative further stated their views on McGill’s decision to restrict access to campus.
“It’s very odd that McGill wants to avoid class disruption by disrupting every class at McGill,” they said. “I think it sets a dangerous precedent that an academic institution can choose to shut down any protest it likes under the pretext that it might be a security concern. This gives leeway for any university to basically shut down whatever freedom of speech they desire based on their agenda.”
The MRO affirmed McGill’s commitment to permitting freedom of expression and assembly within the bounds of the law, McGill policy, and the university’s code of conduct. If breached, “McGill will act,” the MRO stated.
A Dawson College student wishing to remain anonymous explained that they joined university students at the protest because of their frustration about McGill’s “dehumanization” of Palestinians.
“I think that [how] McGill is responding is very immature […] and that they should be ashamed of themselves.”
