Not only are McGill campers not planning to pack up, they are now organizing a “revolutionary” education program to occupy their summer, an announcement that worries the university’s president.
The group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) wants to make the McGill University campus “a place of revolutionary education” by organizing a summer program for young people. The organization made the announcement in an Instagram post accompanied by an image of people wearing keffiyehs and holding automatic weapons. “We are committed to educating the youth of Montreal,” we can read.
The image sparked a reaction from the rector of McGill University, Deep Saini, who described it as “extremely alarming” in a press release. “Images that evoke violence are not tools for peaceful expression and assembly,” he added.
The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, denounced the image shared by the SPHR in a message on to violence, or even indoctrination. I repeat: this encampment must be dismantled,” commented the minister.
The program is a “peaceful and legitimate” initiative open to Montrealers of all ages, however, affirmed Zeyad Abisaab, general coordinator of the SPHR group at Concordia University. “Instead of spending time talking about an image, the administration should stop being complicit in genocide. », added the young man, sitting at a picnic table near the McGill camp on Friday afternoon.
Dead calm reigned around the encampment, where handfuls of demonstrators chatted quietly under the gaze of a few security guards.
The educational program will run from June 17 to July 12 on the university campus, Zeyad Abisaab explained. The program will include lectures, workshops on Palestinian history and artistic activities. Courses given by professors from McGill University and Concordia University are also planned, according to the coordinator.
“We are here in Quebec, where freedom of expression and education are considered rights,” said Zeyad Abisaab, according to whom the program does not deserve to cause concern. “There has been an educational space and activities here since the beginning of the camp,” said the young man.
