Timeline of Encampments at U of T and Beyond
APRIL 1–9 U of T students occupy president Gertler’s office for 36 hours, then meet with Gertler. He rejects their demands.
APRIL 22–MAY 1 Encampments go up at University of Alberta, McGill, UBC, Western, U of Ottawa, and elsewhere.
MAY 2 Encampment set up at U of T. By morning, agitators begin showing up. That evening, thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters gather on campus. After saying they must leave, admin says the camp can stay if it remains peaceful.
MAY 5–9 Encampments go up at McMaster, U of Manitoba, U of Windsor.
MAY 9–10 Police raid camps at U of Calgary and U of Alberta, beat people, shoot pepper balls and other munitions.
MAY 12–13 U of T admin agrees to a “substantive” meeting about students’ demands. After, students reject admin’s “bureaucratic promises to do something.” Students say they will hold no more private meetings with admin.
MAY 15 U of T’s Jewish Faculty Network publicly supports encampment.
MAY 20 & 25 Organizers at Ontario Tech and then McMaster take down their camps after getting admin to agree to disclosure but not the core demand of divestment.
MAY 21 Students release report showing U of T’s external investment managers have direct connections to companies profiting from Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
MAY 23 Gertler emails admin’s first offer to entire U of T community. Encampment organizers reject it.
MAY 24 Students receive trespass notice from U of T.
MAY 27 NGOs, unions and others show up for rally to protect students. Admin seeks a court injunction to clear the camp.
MAY 30 Pro-Israel individual removing banners from gates of U of T encampment pulls a knife on encampment residents, video posted online.
JUNE 3 Students at U of T hold a graduation and vigil for Gaza. Convocation starts, many graduating students wear keffiyehs and pull out banners as they cross the stage, the livestream online cuts away from them.
JUNE 5–6 York U students establish encampment at the Keele Campus. Police raid it a day later.
JUNE 14 U of T encampment hosts seventh Shabbat dinner, continues hosting educational events and organizing actions around graduation.
JUNE 19–20 U of T encampment injunction hearings.
York Encampment Quickly Raided by Cops
A day after tents went up at York University, the administration called Toronto police to raid and dismantle the pro-Palestine encampment.
The day before the June 6 raid, university admin said they “will be seeking to establish a dialogue with the individuals in the encampment.”
The student-led camp had similar demands as others around the country: to disclose, divest and boycott companies and universities supporting Israel’s military.
When police arrived just after dawn, students left as the line of 40 or more police advanced.
Video shows police violently taking one person down to the ground.
Scotiabank Partially Divests from Israeli Weapons-maker After Artist Pressure
After months of pressure from artists and others, Scotiabank has divested over half its shares in Elbit Systems, a main weapons supplier for the Israeli military. Scotiabank was the largest foreign shareholder in Elbit as of fall 2023.
Artists and media-makers who have had their work featured in Scotiabank-sponsored events such as Hot Docs, Contact Photography Festival and the literary Giller Prize have spoken out.
In June, Josiah Neufeld’s Walrus article, “How the Giller Prize Became Associated with Genocide,” detailed how 2023 winner Sarah Bernstein cancelled an online Giller Book Club appearance after organizers told her questions about Palestine would be censored.
Other authors have also dropped out of Giller events.
Charges Dropped for Several Palestine Supporters
A growing number of people are having their charges dropped by Crown attorneys for their alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian
protests, the Crown indicating there is no chance of conviction.
Four of the 11 arrested at their homes in the middle of the night for allegedly vandalizing an Indigo store had all charges dropped.
Hesham Aly had his charges dropped after he was tackled by at least three cops and arrested while walking towards the Avenue
Road bridge over Highway 401 in January. That was around the time of the flag-waving actions on many bridges.
Aly was arrested again following an interaction at the gates of the U of T encampment in May. Video released after his arrest shows a man pushing Aly in an attempt to get into the camp and Aly pushing back then stopping others from moving towards the man, de-escalating the situation. Aly was charged with assault.
Organizers and civil liberty watchers are asking why police are laying so many charges which are later found to have no chance of
conviction.
Numerous politicians and pundits have been calling for police to lay criminal charges against protesters.
Israel Agrees then Backs Out of Ceasefire Deal, Continues Attacks
In May, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ceasefire deal that had been agreed to by Israel’s top leadership that included a phased hostage and prisoner exchange and pause in fighting.
Hamas, which had been proposing similar deals for months, responded positively. But when details became public, Israeli far-right leaders threatened to topple Prime Minister Netenyahu’s government. He then rejected the deal and continued bombing Gaza.
Soon after, an Israeli aerial bombing and ground operation, with some soldiers disguising themselves as aid workers, killed around 274 Palestinians, mainly women and children, and retrieved four Israeli hostages in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Hamas says Israel killed three hostages in the operation.
UN Investigation Indicates Sexual and Gender-based Violence Is Part of Israeli Military Operating Procedures
“In relation to Israeli military operations and attacks in Gaza,” write the authors of a United Nations investigation published in June, “the Commission found that Israeli authorities are responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity.”
The Commission found that “The frequency, prevalence and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes perpetrated against Palestinians since 7 October across the Occupied Palestinian Territories indicate that specific forms of sexual and gender-based violence are part of ISF [Israeli Security Forces] operating procedures.”
The Commission uses the term “sexual violence” to “cover a range of physical and non-physical acts of a sexual nature against a person or causing a person to engage in such an act, by force, or by threat of force or coercion.”
Israel did not respond to six requests from investigators for information and access.
Regarding the actions of Hamas, other Gaza-based groups and some Palestinian civilians, the investigation found that “The attack on 7 October enabled perpetrators to commit sexual and gender-based violence and this violence was not isolated but perpetrated in similar ways in several locations and by multiple Palestinian perpetrators. The Commission did not find credible evidence, however, that militants received orders to commit sexual violence and so it was unable to make conclusions on this issue.”
The report authors note that investigators “reviewed testimonies obtained by journalists and the Israeli police concerning rape but has not been able to independently verify such allegations, due to a lack of access to victims, witnesses and crime sites and the obstruction of its investigations by the Israeli authorities.