Pro-Palestinian camp vacates U of M after legal threat

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This article was published 15/07/2024 (439 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pro-Palestinian encampment on University of Manitoba grounds has been dismantled after 70 days after school administration threatened organizers with legal action.

Students were told they had until 8 a.m. Monday to leave or the university would pursue “legal remedies for its removal” in a letter signed by provost Diane Hiebert-Murphy last week, citing the infringement on public space.

By Monday morning, the tents, signs, flags and fencing, which had been set up in the quad grass as of May 7, were gone. Similar protests rose up at campuses across the country, including at the University of Toronto and McGill University in Montreal. The goal was to denounce the war in Gaza, following Hamas attacks in Israel Oct. 7.

Encampment member Mer Canjura said the decision to leave was made after the university had “only shown malicious intent” and its threat put the safety of people at the camp at risk.

“We are not leaving merely to escape the administrators’ legal remedies, but to deprive the University of Manitoba of the spectacle that they so desire,” she said.

“Instead, we chose to dismantle our camp with the same discipline and intent which we built it.”

In a statement, Hiebert-Murphy called for students and staff to “appreciate the diversity of our community.”

“Universities must remain places for meaningful and respectful debate, and UM is committed to serving as a space to explore complex issues of local and global importance,” she said.

Students for Justice in Palestine called on the U of M to boycott Israeli institutions, disclose its investments and divest from any organizations complicit in discrimination against Palestinian people, publish a public statement in support of Palestinian rights and create a course on Palestinian identity.

While the university has committed to publicly disclosing its investment holdings in the fall, the administration would not ban partnerships of any single nation, as per a statement published online by the university in June.

Canjura called the U of M’s efforts “shallow” and said students were working on new ways to hold leadership to account.

“We will return and our demands will be met,” she said.

“If the University of Manitoba believes that their intimidation tactics and disrespectful ignorance will deter us, they are wrong.”

Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba president Ramsey Zeid said the group had planned to dismantle the encampment in the next few weeks at the time of receiving the legal threat from the U of M.

He claimed U of M security intimidated students at the encampment, who felt unsafe, and the presence of supporters at the university had dwindled in recent weeks.

“There isn’t very much presence right now with the University of Manitoba, the exposure wasn’t there, the administration wasn’t willing to co-operate very much, so they decided to dismantle it,” he said.

Zeid said he and other activists would watch to make sure the U of M fulfils the commitments it did make and continue to push for its other demands.

“This is just a bit of a pause right now, but come September, there’ll be other ways to pressure the University of Manitoba.”

The U of M grounds were quiet Monday morning, with many students away for summer.

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Several students approached by the Free Press Monday said they either had no issue with the encampment or were not sure why it had been there.

Nutritional sciences student Mikayla Dawn said she was relieved to see the encampment was removed without police involvement.

“I didn’t think it was disturbing anyone, it wasn’t disturbing me,” she said.

Police were called to clear out a similar encampment at the University of Alberta in May, where batons and pepper spray were used.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.