Students who organized a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto say they have cleared the site ahead of a court-ordered deadline to leave on Wednesday.
“Today, we are departing from the People’s Circle for Palestine earlier than the 6 p.m. deadline set by the court. We refuse to give the Toronto Police Service any opportunity to brutalize us,” Mohammad Yassin, an encampment organizer and recent graduate, told reporters.
“We are leaving on our own terms to protect our community from the violence the University of Toronto is clearly eager to unleash upon us.”
The deadline was introduced Tuesday, after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted an injunction to the university to clear the encampment.
“Let us be clear — the university will disclose its investments, divest from companies profiting from Palestinian suffering and deaths, and cut ties with academic institutions tied to the Israeli war machine. The question is not if, but when?” Yassin added.
Demonstrators held a rally at the encampment that drew at least 200 people ahead of the news conference. Sections of the fence that enclosed the encampment could be seen being taken down on Wednesday afternoon.
Protesters set up tents at U of T’s downtown campus on May 2. Organizers have been demanding the university divest from companies profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza and end partnerships with Israeli academic institutions they say are complicit in the war.
Yassin said the students will continue to speak out until justice is achieved.
“Our continued occupation through the summer convocation period was a massive victory. We showed every U of T graduate and their families that the institution they were celebrating has played an active role in this genocide. We prevented the university from convocation-washing its complicity during what should have been a time of reflection on its moral responsibilities.”
By mid-afternoon Wednesday, demonstrators had packed up most of the tents, leaving bare patches on the grassy lawn of King’s College Circle on the front campus. On the grass in the middle of the encampment, a message was visible in large, painted letters: “WE WILL RETURN.”
According to the injunction, Toronto police have the authority to arrest and remove anyone who refuses to comply with the court order.
Demonstrators started to dismantle a pro-Palestinan encampment at the University of Toronto on Wednesday morning, ahead of a 6 p.m. injunction deadline granted by an Ontario court on Tuesday. CBC’s Dale Manucdoc explains what the ruling means to protesters on campus.
On Tuesday, Toronto police said on X, formerly Twitter, that they will enforce the court’s order and “hope that protesters will leave voluntarily to avoid police action.”
Police said they wouldn’t disclose “operational details” but that “police action is at our discretion.”
Police followed up with multiple posts Wednesday afternoon, urging demonstrators to leave the encampment voluntarily before the deadline.
Erin Mackey, a spokesperson for UofT Occupy Palestine, the group leading the encampment, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Wednesday that she was worried about the prospect of police violence.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that pro-Palestinian protesters must take down tents on the University of Toronto campus by Wednesday at 6 p.m. Erin Mackey, spokesperson for U of T Occupy for Palestine, told Metro Morning guest host Molly Thomas “it’s appalling” that the university has “called the police on their own students.”
Mackey says university president Meric Gertler should have met with demonstrators before seeking an injunction.
“The least they could do is, you know, meet with their students and listen to our demands,” she said. “Unfortunately U of T, instead of divesting, has called the police on their own students. That’s appalling.”
Mackey said even if camp is dispersed, students, faculty and staff will continue to demonstrate until their demands are met.
“I do absolutely believe that U of T will divest,” she said. “And it is not a question of if, it is a question of when.”
The university declined an interview request from Metro Morning on Wednesday. However, in a statement Tuesday, Gertler said the school “welcomes vigorous debate and protest.”
Under the ruling, protesters are still able to demonstrate on campus, but cannot camp, erect structures or block entrances to university property. Per the ruling, protesting on campus will no longer be permitted between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Gertler said the ruling “prevents any one group from asserting control of a shared space at the university in order to promote a particular view and deprive others of the freedom to express opposing viewpoints.”
In addition to legal consequences, Gertler said anyone who does not adhere to the 6 p.m. deadline will be subject to consequences under university policy.
Three Jewish organizations that intervened in the injunction case say they were disappointed with the court’s ruling and continue to support the students’ right to protest.
In a statement Tuesday from Independent Jewish Voices Canada, the Jewish Faculty Network and the United Jewish People’s Order, Karen Spector, a lawyer for the coalition, said the court’s ruling “confirms the legitimacy and power of collaborative nonviolent resistance to bring attention to the devastation on Palestinians in Gaza.”
The coalition said the actions of demonstrators at the encampment were neither violent nor antisemitic.
In a statement Wednesday, Canadian Civil Liberties Association spokesperson Anaïs Bussières McNicoll said since the court found the demonstration was non-violent, the injunction “undermines an important aspect of the protest, which is its disruptive nature.”
The encampment is part of a massive wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United States.
Israel launched its attack after Hamas led a surprise assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, which left roughly 1,200 dead and saw around 250 people taken hostage. Israel’s offensive has left 37,000 dead in Gaza, according to Palestinian tallies.
In January, the top United Nations court, when ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, concluded that some of the actions alleged to have been committed by Israel in Gaza “appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the (Genocide) Convention.”
It ordered Israel to prevent and punish any public incitements to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and preserve evidence related to genocide allegations. Israel has strongly denied that any of its actions constitute incitement of genocide.