A large group of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered just outside Concordia University’s Henry F. Hall building in downtown Montreal, as part of one of the planned demonstrations that prompted the university to shut down the campus for the day.
As of 1 p.m., protesters, many of them wearing keffiyehs, formed a large huddle near the corner of Mackay Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard. Dozens of police officers are stationed nearby.
Tens of thousands of Montreal students from different universities and CEGEPs are on strike to show their support for the Palestinian people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the last two years.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Concordia University announced it was shutting down its downtown campus to avoid ”potentially obstructive” protests.
“Unless already scheduled, faculty may choose to switch to remote delivery, if feasible,” wrote Graham Carr, Concordia University’s president and vice-chancellor in an email to students.
Carr stated that the institution made the decision to close the campus on Tuesday to “protect our entire community.”
“In the last two years, we have seen protests on campus but have never been forced to enact such preventive measures,” he wrote.
Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary since Hamas’s attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to about 250 people taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel believes there are still 48 hostages in Gaza, 20 of which would be alive.
A day after the Hamas attack in 2023, Israel formally declared war on Hamas — and the military campaign that has followed has killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The scope of Israel’s military response has led to the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister and has led to accusations that Israel is committing genocide — a claim echoed last month by a United Nations Commission of Inquiry.
Israel has insisted that the arrest warrants and the claims it is committing genocide are absurd.
A separate protest is planned later this afternoon near the Square-Victoria–OACI Metro station.
On Monday, another demonstration was held in front of the Hall building.
Montreal police spokesperson Raphaël Bergeron told CBC News two people were arrested during that protest — one for assaulting a security guard and the other for mischief for triggering a fire alarm.
Carr said neither of these individuals are “members of the Concordia community.”
Carr added that with “hundreds” of protesters from other universities and CEGEPs expected, as well as “counter-protesters not linked to the university” planning to gather outside the downtown campus on Tuesday afternoon, the “threat of extreme disruption is simply too high” for the university to operate as usual.
This story is developing and will be updated.
