McGill offers 'forum' with protesters after judge dismisses injunction request

A judge has rejected a request from two McGill University students for a court injunction to limit where protesters can go on campus.

Calling it "non-negotiable," McGill University's president says the pro-Palestinian encampment on the lower field "must be dismantled quickly."

In a letter to the McGill community, Deep Saini said while he supports the right of members of the McGill community to protest and express their views by legal means, "no one, let alone individuals from outside McGill, has the right to set up an encampment on the University's property."

His letter comes hours after a judge rejected a request from two McGill University students for a court injunction to limit where protesters can go on campus. The plaintiffs who sought the injunction had argued the pro-Palestinian encampment on the school's lower field created a "dangerous, hostile, aggressive and violent environment."

However, in her ruling, Justice Chantal Masse wrote that two students failed to demonstrate that their access to the school was being blocked or that they would be unable to write their final exams. The judge also took into account statements from the protesters who argued that such an order would have a "chilling effect" on their right to free speech.

"The court is of the opinion that the balance of inconveniences leans to the side of the protesters, whose freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly would be seriously affected," she wrote. The evidence of harm to the students, on the other hand, is "rather limited, arising more from subjective worries and discomfort rather than precise and serious worries for their safety."

After the ruling was issued, Saini said in his letter that he has also offered to hold a "forum" to discuss the protesters' demands "if members of the McGill community in the encampment permanently leave the encampment immediately."

Meanwhile, Jewish groups are planning to launch a counter-protest on Thursday at McGill.