Riot police used chemical irritants to disperse a crowd reacting to the dismantling of the Victoria Square encampment.
Montreal riot police used chemical irritants to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters at McGill University on Friday night after some demonstrators smashed windows, police said.
One person was arrested and two officers suffered minor injuries, said Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chevrefils.
“Fuck the dismantling, globalize the intifada,” the groups, including the McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, said in a social media post ahead of the march that began near Victoria Square at 8 p.m.
The protesters walked to McGill and at one point placed obstructions in the street to block police, Chevrefils said.
“At around 9:15 p.m., a demonstrator smashed a shop window, and the protesters then moved on to smash windows in a McGill administration building,” she said.
“Following the demonstrators’ hostile attitude toward the police, (officers) began dispersal maneuvers, using chemical irritants.”
Videos posted on social media show Montreal police on foot, bike and horseback outside McGill’s Roddick Gates.
The protest ended at about 11 p.m.
Chevrefils said a 66-year-old man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a McGill security guard and mischief for smashing windows. He was released and will appear in court later.
In their social media post, protest organizers said the dismantling of the Victoria Square encampment “does not mean the end of our mobilization. Let’s show the accomplices of the genocide that we will not be intimidated.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters have been camped out at McGill since April 27.
They want the university to withdraw investments from companies linked to what they describe as the genocide of Palestinians and sever relationships with Israeli universities.
McGill president Deep Saini said he now expects the city and police to remove the encampment on his campus.
She also lashed out at the university, accusing it of lacking leadership and failing to “find a way out other than going to court.”