On Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, the McGill Engineering Career Centre hosted its annual TechFair at New Residence Hall, with more than 70 companies in attendance. Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) at McGill alleged that five of the participating corporations—Airbus, Cisco Inc., Galvion, L’Oreal, and MDA Space—are linked to Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
According to SPHR, these five companies have direct ties with Israel’s military, manufacturing, or surveillance activities. Airbus, Galvion, and MDA Space have produced weapons and war technology that Israel deploys against Palestinians, L’Oreal operates some of its manufacturing plants on Palestinian lands, and Cisco Inc.’s technology is used to support the Israeli military’s surveillance practices.
SPHR, along with Engineering Students for Palestine at McGill, have since initiated a “No Genociders at TechFair” email campaign that started on Jan. 22, urging McGill to immediately terminate its partnerships with these companies. On Jan. 30, SPHR also hosted a rally outside the McConnell Engineering Building, where a couple dozen people assembled to demand McGill remove the companies from the TechFair.
In an interview with The Tribune, a SPHR representative explained that the five companies have been primary focuses of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in recent years. BDS, formed in 2005 by a coalition of more than 170 Palestinian unions, professional associations, refugee networks, and other civic groups, aims to challenge international support of Israel.
“As primary targets of the BDS campaign, students have expressed their opinions again and again […] that [they] will not tolerate the presence of weapon manufacturers or otherwise complicit companies on [their] campus,” the representative said. “We will take action against these companies, and I don’t see that changing until McGill […] refuses to allow them on campus.”
A TechFair attendee, U1 Engineering, who wished to remain unnamed, expressed their reluctance to apply to Cisco Inc., one of the five companies, after learning about its involvement with Israel’s surveillance activity in Palestine and McGill’s failure to reprimand this involvement.
“[McGill is] not taking [the concerns raised by students] into consideration,” they told The Tribune.
The SPHR representative also claimed that McGill has a long history of overlooking student concerns.
“Throughout the last year, students have made themselves clear time and time again,” they said. “McGill has responded […] by ignoring student demands, by brushing them off, and diverting students’ bureaucratic channels, by arresting students, by taking disciplinary cases against students who protest, and by calling private security to brutalize students’ protests on their own campus,” they said.
They referred to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s 2023 Fall Referendum, where students put forward the Policy Against Genocide in Palestine.
“What we saw at the time was a voter turnout for that referendum question that was higher than any voter turnout in [recent] McGill history,” the SPHR representative said.
Despite McGill’s warning that it would cut ties with SSMU if they adopted the policy, 78.7 per cent of non-abstaining voters—or 5,974 students—voted in favour of it. However, the policy was never passed as the Superior Court of Québec ordered an interlocutory injunction ordering the SSMU to refrain from its implementation.
In a written statement to The Tribune, the McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) wrote that McGill does not assume responsibility for barring companies involved with Zionist interests from any involvement on campus, so long as their activities remain lawful.
“McGill career fairs tend to reflect market trends, notably industries with many positions open to university graduates,” the MRO wrote. “The University respects the freedom of its diverse students to decide which industries and individual firms are of interest to them as employers.”
The SPHR representative maintained that protestors’ demands should be heard.
“It’s a majority of McGill students who support this cause,” the SPHR representative said. “It’s time that McGill responds to students with real change.”
