McGill University has obtained a temporary court order against a pro-Palestinian student group forbidding protests that disrupt activities or block access to buildings on campus.
The university went to court after a three-day protest earlier this month led to clashes, blockades and vandalism on its downtown campus.
A Quebec Superior Court judge granted the provisional injunction Tuesday, siding with McGill against the group Students for Palestinian Honour and Resistance, known as SPHR-McGill.
The protest, described as a strike for Palestinian liberation, ran from April 2 to 4 and demanded that McGill divest from companies linked to Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The protest forced the university to cancel some classes, and the school sought the injunction as its final exam period began on Monday.
The court document describes how this month’s protest led to smashed windows, buildings splattered with paint and classrooms blockaded or taken over by protesters.
“Protesters threw a fire extinguisher with red paint through a glass office door, spraying a McGill staff member,” the ruling reads. “Strike organizers called for professors who continued to hold classes to be named and shamed, clearly trying to intimidate them.”
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The injunction states that group members are not permitted to block or obstruct McGill entrances, engage in protests within five metres of any McGill building or obstruct courses or exams.
“It is urgent to restore calm and a sense of security on the McGill campus,” Justice David R. Collier wrote. “McGill has a clear right to an order that allows it to carry out its academic activities without obstruction. McGill is entitled to the protection of its property.”
The judge noted the 10-day order does not prevent peaceful protest at McGill. A request for comment from SPHR-McGill was not immediately returned.
“Violence, intimidation and the destruction of property cannot be tolerated in this country, least of all at our universities, whose very mission is to foster learning and the expression of opinion through peaceful, respectful dialogue,” Collier wrote.
McGill University president Deep Saini said in a statement the university wants to defend everyone’s right to free expression and lawful assembly while protecting the campus from abuses of those same freedoms. “Especially when they hurt our academic mission or cause injury to others,” Saini added.
The court noted the injunction is subject to renewal but said the parties should be ready to proceed quickly, either to an interlocutory request—meaning an injunction that is in force until the case is heard fully—or directly to deciding the case on its merits.
The university has also moved to terminate its contractual relationship with the undergraduate student union, Students’ Society of McGill University, in the aftermath of the April protests. It accuses the organization’s leadership of not dissociating itself from groups that “endorse or engage in acts of vandalism, intimidation and obstruction as forms of activism.”
The university has entered into mediation with the students’ society as a required first step before severing ties.
