Montreal police were called out to reports of pro-Palestinian protesters attempting to topple the Queen Victoria statue near an encampment in the city’s Victoria Square.
A police spokesperson told The Epoch Times that officers arrived before the statue could be pulled down, with the protesters splitting up.
Police said they continue to monitor the situation, remaining at the perimeter of the encampment although no arrests have been made.
The group behind the encampment, Divest for Palestine Collective, said protesters had set up in Victoria Square on June 22 near the provincial pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
Protesters said they want the pension fund to cut ties with Israeli institutions they say are complicit in the war between Israel and Hamas.
University Encampments
The Victoria Square protests are similar to ones being held at university campuses across North America, including Montreal’s McGill University.
Protesters started camping out at McGill near the end of April. On June 6, Montreal police used tear gas on demonstrators who occupied the main administration building and arrested 15 people in the incident.
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill said in a June 6 social media post the occupation was an attempt to draw attention to the international community about what was happening in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
President and vice-chancellor Deep Saini said it was clear that no “fruitful outcome” would result from the talks and that the university will take disciplinary action against those in the encampment.
The group involved in the encampment, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, had said students would not be moved. Mr. Saini called the encampment an “illegal occupation of McGill property,” noting there had been a forceful entry and illegal occupation of the James administration building and some students, staff, and faculty had been harassed by protesters.
Mr. Saini said demonstrators from the encampment had also hung a political figure’s effigy at the Roddick Gates and had posted “provocative” signage and graffiti around the campus, which were seen as anti-Semitic.
At the end of May, pro-Palestinian protesters at the Université du Québec à Montréal took down their encampment after the university agreed to demands, including disclosing annual investments and refraining from investments in companies that profit from weapons manufacturing.
