McGill withdraws injunction request against pro-Palestinian groups

McGill University has withdrawn its injunction request against pro-Palestinian groups, CBC News has learned.

The request sought a court order to remove an encampment on its downtown campus in Montreal. It also included a request to prevent similar encampments in the future.

Earlier this month, the university hired a private security firm to evict the protesters anyway.

A case management hearing was scheduled Thursday morning at the Montreal courthouse, but McGill's lawyers were not present.

The proceeding was suspended and court documents filed shortly afterward by the law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, which has been representing McGill, provided notice to the court about the withdrawal.

Two people involved in the case also said the university does not intend to set a new court date.

University sought to have encampment banned

The university made the request May 15, roughly three weeks after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on the lower lawn of its downtown campus and after another injunction request filed on behalf of two McGill studentshad been rejected.

After McGill's provisional injunction request was also rejected, the university announced it would be moving forward witha request for an interlocutory injunction,the next stage as it sought to have the encampment permanently banned.

WATCH | Who has the right to occupy campus space?:

Was it legal for McGill to take down the pro-Palestinian encampment?

2 months ago

Duration 1:44

While McGill argues it had a right to remove protesters and their belongings from its private property after a 10-week encampment, some legal experts argue it's not that simple.

The school wanted to have protesters barred from "camping or occupying in any manner whatsoever" as well as from protesting in any way that is in violation of university policy on its downtown campus.

The order would also have authorized bailiffs tasked with serving the judgment to "call upon any peace officer to assist them."

The court documents filed Thursday withdrawing the request as a whole were brief and provided no reason for the withdrawal.

'Muzzling and chilling effect'

Five groups and two individuals (named only as Jane and John Doe) were listed as defendants in McGill's injunction request, includingthe Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU).

The students' society says it was not part of the encampment but its representatives believe the group was targeted because of a policy expressing support for Palestinians it attempted to adopt in November.

SSMU VP External Affairs Hugo Victor Solomon told CBCNews Thursday the legal actions McGill had taken against students in the 2023-24 school year have had "kind of a muzzling and chilling effect on student protest."

Solomon said the group was surprised but satisfied to see McGill's withdrawal from its injunction request, given the future implications it could have had on campus protests.

"It's a really crucial moment to pay attention, not just to reactions to the types of actions that people are taking, but the values that students are standing for," Solomon said, adding he couldn't comment on the encampment itself, but that "the values of our society really compel us to support the right to student protest."

A McGillstudent had requested a separate injunction on the matter of the SSMU policy last fall, called "Policy Against Genocide in Palestine," which had similar demands to the encampment that was set up months later.

The policy had been approved by 78.7 per cent of students who votedin a referendum. It called on McGill University to cut ties with people, corporations and institutions that are "complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheidor ethnic cleansing against Palestinians."

But in a decision rendered May 22,Superior Court Justice Shaun E. Finn granted a temporary injunction to prevent the policy from being adopted, saying "it is at least arguable the policy violates certain guiding principles contained in the (SSMU) constitution."