‘We need more tents’: Protesters hunker down at Montreal’s McGill University encampment in solidarity with Gaza

Montreal students at the McGill encampment in solidarity with Gaza gave every indication they don’t intend their stay on university grounds to be short lived.

Several students from McGill and Concordia spent Saturday night at the camp, and intended to do so again Sunday.

“We need more tents please,” the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill wrote on its Instagram story Sunday morning. “This is the most important supply we are asking for.”

Organizers shared – on social media and to a Telegram channel dedicated to the protest – a list of other items demonstrators needed, including lights, generators, batteries, towels, gloves, portable toilets, blankets, sleeping bags, tables and chairs.

McGill University says the dean of students and security personnel told the protesters to remove their tents on Saturday, but they refused.

“While members of the McGill community have the right to freedom of expression and assembly within the bounds of University policy, procedures and the law, erecting tents without approval violates our policies and the law,” said deputy provost Fabrice Labeau in a statement Sunday.

“Our top priority is ensuring the health and safety of our community by minimizing the risk of escalation and any potential harm that may ensue. That is why we have chosen to engage in discussions with lawyers retained by McGill students in the encampment to arrive at a swift resolution.”

Tents began going up at McGill – near the iconic Roddick Gates off Sherbrooke Street – Saturday afternoon, mirroring similar pro-Palestinian protest encampments on major U.S. campuses. Those began popping up following the arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University in New York.

“We’re just heeding the calls of our comrades in the United States to push for our demands and escalate, and make our presence unavoidable. To reclaim our campus,” a McGill student who chose to remain anonymous told CityNews.

The encampment on McGill’s lower field was fenced off, with protesters calling the area a “liberated zone.” Stacks of water, food and other supplies could be seen inside the camp. There were more tents Sunday afternoon than there were Saturday.

“It’s beginning to grow and we’re encouraging the expansion,” the same McGill student said. “We have found a lot of support in community and each other.”

The students — those in the U.S. and Montreal — are calling for their universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza.

“McGill you have blood on your heads,” one poster read. “Ceasefire now,” was written in chalk at the university entrance.

“This is a solidarity encampment, but it is as well an encampment that is meant to apply economic pressure and media pressure,” said Zeyad Abisaab with Concordia University’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group.

“Above all, we are all human and what’s happening in Gaza in inhumane.

“We’re doing this because our people in Gaza are in desperate need of us.”

McGill campus security could be seen onsite Sunday afternoon, but Montreal police were not.

“McGill’s security team is closely collaborating with Montreal police (SPVM) to ensure the ongoing safety of the McGill community and of those protesting on the lower field,” McGill said in its statement.

Abisaab, who spent the night in a tent, says police presence isn’t necessary.

“This horrible culture of bringing police on campus is horrible for students, it’s horrible for McGill,” he said. “It’s horrible for the reputation of Montreal. It’s horrible for the reputation of education, to bring police on campus and threaten students with arrest.”

McGill University has acknowledged the protest has been peaceful.

Concordia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.