U of T gets injunction to clear encampment

An Ontario court has granted an injunction to the University of Toronto to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment on school property.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that protesters musttake down tents in an area known as King's College Circle by Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The ruling byJustice MarkusKoehnenalso gives Toronto police the authority to arrest and remove anyone who refuses to comply with the court order.

The injunction allowsthe protesters to demonstrate throughout the campus, but preventsthem from camping, erecting structures, blocking entrances to university property and protesting on campus between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

"As a result, the injunction does not limit the freedom of expression that the law provides," the judge wrote in his decision.

You can read the court's reasoning for the decision at the bottom of this story.

Toronto police say they will enforce the court's order.

"We hope that protestors will leave voluntarily to avoid the need for police action," policesaid in a statement. "While we will not disclose operational details or exact timing, the court order clearly states that the timing and manner of police action is at our discretion. We are determining those operational details."

WATCH | Protester says 'no business as usual' until demands met:

Protester says 'no business as usual' on U of T campus until demands met

2 months ago

Duration 1:13

Sara Rasikh, demonstrator and University of Toronto masters student, says the movement on campus "will continue to grow until Palestine is free." The comment comes after an Ontario court grant the school's request to clear the camp. Rasikh called on students, faculty and staff to join protesters in escalating pressure on the university to end its "complicity in genocide."

In a statement following the decision, U of T president Meric Gertler said the school "welcomes vigorous debate and protest.

"Today's court order returns Front Campus to the entire university community and prevents any one group from asserting control of a shared space at the university in order to promote a particular view and deprive others of the freedom to express opposing viewpoints," Gertler said.

'Our resolve is stronger than ever': protest organizer

U of T Occupy for Palestine, the organizers of the encampment, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the decision means that the school has been granted the "immoral license to unleash police violence" on students.

"The university's shameful attempt to use legal force to brutalize its own students for the crime of protesting genocide will go down in history as a disgraceful chapter for this institution," the post reads.

Mohammad Yassin, a protest organizer with U of TOccupy for Palestine, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday thatthe injunction "changes nothing" about the injustice against which the students are fighting.

"Make no mistake, our resolve is stronger than ever. We've said from day one that we will not leave this campus until U of T discloses divests and cuts ties. That commitment stands firm."

"Instead of reflecting on their complicity in this genocide, the administration has fought tooth and nail for a patch of grass and the authoritarian power to silence their students," Yassin said. "Yet we are still here despite all the obstacles placed in our way, firm and determined to continue the fight for the humanity of our brothers and sisters in Gaza."

Protesters set up tents at the site ofU of T's downtown campus on May 2. Organizers of the encampment havecalled on the university to cut its ties with Israel, divest from companies profiting from Israel's offensive in Gazaand endpartnerships with the country's academic institutions deemed complicit in the war.

Sara Rasikh, a master's student at U of T, told reportersthe students will continue their fight.

"To President Gertler and the Board of Governors there will be no business as usual on campus until you meet our demands," she said."This encampment is just one tactic, and we are prepared to employ as many as necessary to achieve our demands."

Asked whether they plan to comply with the injunction's orders to dismantle the encampment, protesters said they will regroup before making a final decision.

The encampment ispart of a massive wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United States.

Israel launched its attack after Hamas led a surprise assaulton southern Israel on Oct. 7, which left roughly 1,200 dead and saw around 250people taken hostage. Israel'soffensivehas left 37,000 dead in Gaza, according to Palestinian tallies.

In January, the top United Nations court, when ruling onSouth Africa's genocide case against Israel, concluded that some of the actions alleged to have beencommitted by Israel in Gaza "appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the (Genocide) Convention."

Itordered Israel toprevent and punish any public incitements to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and preserve evidence related to genocide allegations.Israel has strongly deniedthat any of its actions constituteincitement of genocide.

Protest 'peaceful' but U of T has property rights: judge

In his reasoning, the judge said the university argued it had the right as property owner to decide how its campus is used, while the protesters saw the case as dealing with "freedom of expression, association and assembly."

"In our society we have decided that the owner of property generally gets to decide what happens on the property. If the protesters can take that power for themselves by seizing Front Campus, there is nothing to stop a stronger group from coming and taking the space over from the current protesters. That leads to chaos."

"The case law is clear that this type of loss of use amounts to irreparable harm," the judge wrote."In my view, the harm to the university is greater if the injunction is not granted than is the harm to the respondents if the injunction is granted."

The protesters had arguedthe school's claims of irreparable harm were "grounded in troubling mischaracterizations" of the encampment as violent and antisemitic.

The judge said the university did not make a strong case that theencampment was violent or antisemitic.

"The record before me shows that, apart from the initial seizing and the continuing exclusion of people from Front Campus, the encampment itself is peaceful," he wrote.

He also said the protesters shone a "bright light" on what universities should or should not invest in.

"I also accept that acts of intimidation and assault have been directed against Jewish passersby and encampment members at Front Campus. There is no evidence, however, to suggest that any of the named respondents or any other encampment members were in any way involved in those acts," he said.

Jewish intervenor groups mixed on ruling

Onegroup of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations who were granted intervenor status in the case praised the ruling. The groups includeUJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

"We are relieved that the Ontario court has granted an injunction, eliminating any doubt that the University of Toronto may legally and finally remove the hateful and disruptive encampment from its campus," Rabbi Seth Goren, CEO of Hillel Ontario, said in a statement on behalf of the group.

The groups called on the university, the city and the Toronto policeto "dismantle" the encampment at Wednesday's deadline.

"Antisemitism is millennia-old, and we know that a single injunction will not wipe this bigotry from campus or the world," the statement said.

"As such, we continue to call on the U of T administration, Mayor Olivia Chow, and other civic leaders to make clear through their actions that conduct of this nature will not be tolerated and that antisemitism has no place on campus."

Three other Jewish organizations that intervened in the injunction case saythey were disappointed with the court's ruling and continue to support the students' right to protest.

In a statement Tuesday from Independent Jewish Voices Canada, the Jewish Faculty Network and the United Jewish People's Order, Karen Spector, a lawyer for the coalition, said the court's ruling "confirms the legitimacy and power of collaborative nonviolent resistance to bring attention to the devastation on Palestinians in Gaza."

The coalition said the actions of demonstrators at the encampment wereneither violent nor antisemitic.

Ruling a 'setback' for peaceful assembly, groups say

Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, which jointly intervened in thehearing, said in a statement that the injunction is a "setback" to the right of peaceful assembly.

"AmnestyInternational is disappointed that the court's ruling fails to uphold the rights of human rights defenders,"Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada's English-speaking section, said in the statement.

Both organizations urged the university to talk tostudents about their demands,despite the ruling.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), for its part, said it intervened in the case to argue that the university usedIslamophobic and anti-Palestinianstereotypes when portraying the protestors as hateful and dangerous.

"The court has now agreed that these encampment activists have not engaged in any forms of hatred and have been using peaceful tactics to stand up for human rights issues," it said.