Quebec premier calls for McGill University encampment to be dismantled
The Premier of Quebec Francois Legault has called on police to dismantle a pro-Palestine encampment on the McGill University campus in Montreal. The McGill University administration has also called on police to remove the dozens of tents that have been set up on the campus since Saturday.
Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant has said his forces are “still evaluating” the situation and said it is not in the interests of the police or the city of Montreal to immediately intervene in a peaceful protest.
Student-led protests have spread from the US to Canada in recent days. Pro-Palestine camps have been erected across some of Canada’s largest universities, with activists demanding they divest from groups conducting business with Israel.
So what is the reason for wanting to dismantle the protest encampment? It's peaceful, no one gets blocked, it's outside. Get off my lawn?
Sciences Po to close main Paris buildings amid renewed antiwar occupation
The Paris university said it would close its main site in the French capital on Friday due to a renewed occupation of buildings by pro-Palestinian student protesters.
In a message sent to staff on Thursday evening, university management said their buildings in central Paris “will remain closed tomorrow, Friday, May 3. We ask you to continue to work from home”.
France’s AFP news agency said a committee of pro-Palestinian students had earlier announced a “peaceful sit-in” and said six students were starting a hunger strike “in solidarity with Palestinian victims” in war-torn Gaza.
The Paris regional authority’s right-wing head Valerie Pecresse temporarily suspended funding to the university – which is widely considered France’s top political science school – earlier this week over the antiwar protests, condemning what she called “a minority of radicalised people” and branding the protesters’ calls for an end to the war in Gaza “anti-Semitic hatred”.
A member of the student committee, who identified himself only as Hicham, told AFP that the hunger strikes would continue until the university’s board voted on holding an investigation into its partnerships with Israeli universities.
Protesters raise their hands coated in red paint to symbolise blood as they take part in a demonstration in front of Sciences Po Paris, which was occupied by students, in support of Palestinians, in Paris on April 26
Police enter Sciences Po university in Paris
French police have been seen entering the main building of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) where a group of students outraged over the war on Gaza have staged a sit-in.
One student told reporters that some 50 students were still inside the rue Saint-Guillaume site in central Paris when police entered. Television footage from the scene suggested the evacuation was passing off peacefully.
Bastien, 22, told AFP he and other protesters had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers. Another, Lucas, studying for a master’s degree, said “some students were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders”.
Protesters occupied the entrance hall following a debate with administrators on Thursday morning. But the university’s interim administrator, Jean Basseres, refused student demands to “investigate” Science Po’s ties with Israeli institutions, an outcome that the university’s Palestine Committee dubbed “disappointing”.
Students from the Palestine Committee had earlier told reporters they faced a “disproportionate” response from police, who had blocked access to the site before moving in. They also complained of a lack of “medical assistance” for seven students who had started a hunger strike “in solidarity with Palestinian victims”.
On Friday, administrators closed Sciences Po’s main buildings in response to the sit-in and called for remote classes instead. They said “around 70 to 80 people” were occupying the foyer of the central Paris building.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said such protests would be dealt with using “total rigour”, adding that 23 university sites had been “evacuated” on Thursday.
Protesters flash the sign of victory as they are escorted away by French gendarmes
