Dalhousie encampment protesters remain as trespass deadline passes

Security guards were standing watch this morning at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Halifax campus of Dalhousie University, three days after the school issued a trespass notice ordering protesters leave the site and take their tents and other possessions with them.

The university said it had begun “operations” to remove objects from the site, and a number of protesters said guards started dismantling tents at about 6 a.m. AT, but then stopped and put up yellow caution tape around the encampment.

Protesters remain at the Studley Quad, as do their tents, some of which were carried up onto the steps of the university’s administration building, where protesters chanted as security guards looked on from the glass doors of the building.

The university on Friday said all protesters had to leave by 7 p.m. AT yesterday, but the deadline came and went as demonstrators gathered at the site last evening in support of the encampment.

The group Students for the Liberation of Palestine Kjipuktuk, which is behind the protest, wants Dalhousie to cease all partnerships with Israeli academic institutions and suspend financial ties with the country.

The encampment, which was set up more than two months ago, is among many that sprouted up on university campuses in North America to protest Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

A Dalhousie spokesperson said in an email “operations to remove objects and property from the encampment site” began this morning, but the university won’t comment further. A Halifax Regional Police spokesperson said there is no police involvement at this point.

Sara MacCallum, the president of the University of King’s College students’ union and a supporter of the encampment, said the trespass notice issued by Dalhousie was “unreasonable, unacceptable.”

“To threaten to call the cops on your students is not an appropriate solution to anything, no matter what they are there to talk about, especially when they are here speaking out against violence and their tuition money going to support war and genocide,” she said at yesterday’s demonstration.

She said a key concern is that Dalhousie hasn’t moved with enough urgency to get rid of any investments in weapons manufacturing.

The university said earlier this month its fund managers would begin examining investments for “controversial weapons and weapons of mass destruction” during annual reviews, and would be required to answer new questions on geopolitical risk and human rights violations.

Gary Karlin, a local rabbi, said he wants Dalhousie to dismantle the encampment. He hopes it will be peaceful, but said the university needs to be “an organization of its word.” He said at one point he spotted a sign that said “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free,” which he views as a “call to genocide” against Jewish people.

“Yes, there’s free speech in this country, thankfully,” he said. “But at what point does it become not free speech, but speech which commandeers the stage and actually destroys property?”

Israel’s land and air attacks in Gaza came after Hamas-led militants stormed the Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, took 250 hostages and killed 1,200 people, according to numbers from the Israeli government. 

More than 38,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since October, according to the Gaza health ministry. Critics have accused Israel of committing genocide, but it has denied the allegations.

Students for the Liberation of Palestine Kjipuktuk has said it includes students from Dalhousie, King’s College, Saint Mary’s, NSCAD and Mount Saint Vincent universities, and has raised concerns with the investment practices of several schools.

Last month, it pointed to what it said was about $1 million the Dalhousie endowment fund had invested in an Israel chemical company and in the American aerospace company Boeing, which makes missiles.

The securities are noted in Dalhousie’s 2023 investment report, but do not appear in the university’s recent 2024 report. CBC has reached out to Dalhousie for clarification on whether it continues to invest in the two companies.