On Saturday, about twenty students established a pro-Palestinian encampment on the grounds of Laval University (UL) in Quebec, in line with the international campus camping movement, as was the case in Montreal and Sherbrooke.
After just a few hours, the Quebec Police (SPVQ) dismantled it.
Marcel Tremblay / QMI agency
“They asked us to leave because Laval University asked them to dismantle the camp. So we were simply not given the right to demonstrate peacefully in support of Palestine,” Antoine Grenier explains.
Marcel Tremblay / QMI agency
“It is important because otherwise we cannot do anything and it is the only means of pressure. If there are camps, it is because people have been taking to the streets everywhere for months and countries such as the United States, Canada and Germany continue to support Israel,” David Fortier added.
Laval University, for its part, denies having called for the dismantling of the camp, specifying instead that the intervention was carried out by the SPVQ due to non-compliance with a municipal ordinance.
During the intervention, three tickets were distributed to demonstrators. One of them was also transported to the detention unit to prevent recurrence, the SPVQ explains.
Police also conducted nightly surveillance of the Laval University grounds to prevent the installation of new camps.
Marcel Tremblay / QMI agency
Different requirements
The latter demand, among other things, greater financial transparency from Laval University regarding its investments and partnerships with entities linked to Israel.
“A permanent pause and a pledge of complete withdrawal from investments in companies complicit in the genocide” are also demanded.
Other demands include an immediate end to exchange programs with Tel Aviv, Tel Azekah and the Canadian-Israeli health research program, in addition to a position primarily in favor of a ceasefire.
Credit: Nicolas St-Pierre
The students also demand the removal of the position of Jean-Yves Duclos “violating the collective agreement of UL professors” and non-affiliation with the federal government “openly complicit in the genocide”.