Quebec premier says pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill ‘has to be dismantled’
MONTREAL — Quebec Premier François Legault on Thursday called for the end to the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the lower field of McGill University’s downtown campus in Montreal, saying he expected police to dismantle the tents.
His comments followed calls by McGill earlier this week for police to remove the dozens of tents that have been pitched on the field since Saturday in protest of the war in Gaza.
“The encampment is illegal,” Legault told reporters in Quebec City. “The law must be respected, so I expect the police to dismantle these illegal campsites, which is what McGill has requested.”
McGill’s encampment is one of several across the country, including at the University of Ottawa and the University of British Columbia. Early Thursday morning, tents, banners and flags cropped up at the centre of the University of Toronto’s downtown campus. Activists at all the sites are calling for their universities to cut ties with Israel.