Early Saturday, Canadian police forcefully dismantled a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, arresting three people. This occurred two days after a similar student protest was cleared in Calgary, also in Alberta. Since Thursday, students had been staging a sit-in on campus to protest the war in Gaza and to demand that their university disclose its investments and sever all relationships with Israel.
On Saturday, police cleared nearly 100 protesters at the request of the university's president, Bill Flanagan, who stated in a statement that “the safety of the university community is at risk” and that all avenues of dialogue had failed. He noted that “the vast majority” of the demonstrators left peacefully after several warnings.
The police reported that about fifty individuals resisted, and three outsiders were arrested, with no injuries reported. However, the student group "People's University of Palestine" claimed that four students were injured, one of whom required hospitalization. The group condemned the police for using “tear gas and pepper spray” as well as “batons and bicycles to physically attack the demonstrators," supported by videos posted online.
A police spokesperson acknowledged the use of “special ammunition” but denied the use of tear gas. This operation followed days after a similar protest camp was dismantled in Calgary, Alberta’s largest city. On Thursday, clashes broke out during which police used tear gas and sound grenades to clear protesters at the University of Calgary, resulting in the arrest of five people.
Elsewhere in Canada, similar camps have been established at several universities, including McGill University in Montreal, where the administration decided to initiate the necessary procedures on Monday for the police to dismantle the protest camp. Alongside pro-Palestinian initiatives at many American universities, hundreds of people have been camped for two weeks in the heart of the renowned McGill University.
