Anti-Israel activists blocked access to classes at McGill University on Wednesday as part of a student union-backed strike to pressure the Montreal institution to cut ties with companies with ties to Israel.
Masked and keffiyeh-clad activists raised banners in front of classrooms, in what Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights called on Instagram picket lines. The group claims that "over 16 auditorium classrooms were confronted with student-led pickets, effectively enforcing the strike mandate."
According to SPHR, activists demanded that other students not attend class, and encouraged them to join their own lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bnai Brith Canada claimed on X that protesters disrupted classes during the call for a student strike.
"Protest is a protected right — intimidation is not. No student should have to choose between their safety and their education. Disrupting classes, harassing students and faculty, and hijacking campus spaces is not activism, it’s dangerous behavior that has no place on a Canadian campus," Bnai Brith Canada said Wednesday on social media. "McGill is failing its students. The University has a responsibility to ensure the well-being and academic success of every student — this must end now."
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Classes during student strike
On Tuesday a petition was circulated online asking students to report professors who held classes during the strike, according to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). SSMU condemned the petition and any other actions contrary to a peaceful strike, and emphasized that students and staff had no obligation to participate in the action.
"While we support and encourage participation, we strongly denounce any acts or communications that are meant to intimidate others, including those who choose not to participate," SSMU said in a Wednesday statement. "Any actor who attempts to threaten or pressure students or faculty into participating, either through physical intimidation, online harassment campaigns, or otherwise, does not speak for the SSMU, and we firmly condemn such actions."
The strike is set to last from Wednesday until Friday, according to a motion passed in a Special Strike General Assembly last Thursday.
The purpose of the "strike in support of Palestinian liberation" to demand that McGill divest from "corporations supporting military activity in Gaza, an end to institutional relationships with complicit entities, and a cessation of suppression of student activism on campus."
McGill has repeatedly taken a stance of neutrality on the ongoing conflict, as noted by the McGill Board of Governors when discussing a Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility report on divestment from defense firms in February. After a February 5 incident in which five campus buildings' windows were smashed by anti-Israel activists, McGill University President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini emphasized that the university was clear in its position against Boycott, Divest, and Sanction policies.
SPHR said on social media that the protests would continue Thursday.
"Resistance until divestment," said SPHR. "Join us tomorrow for the second day of this historic strike. Long live Gaza, the graveyard of the occupation, and long live the Student Intifada.