Restrictions on access aim to avoid “destabilizing our campus at a very sensitive time,” the university says.
McGill University says it plans to restrict access to its campuses ahead of planned pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian events marking one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the beginning of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The school says that on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, only current McGill students, staff and what it describes as “essential visitors” on university business will be allowed to access the campuses. University-issued ID cards will be required to enter school buildings, including libraries, McGill said.
“During this period of heightened tensions and of mourning, events are being organized that call for significant numbers of people from outside the McGill community to gather on or around campus. In recent months, the university has seen many peaceful protests and commemorations. We’ve unfortunately also seen incidents on campus that have crossed the bounds of the law and McGill’s policies, upsetting people, disrupting access to our learning and work spaces, and damaging property,” deputy provost Angela Campbell and university vice-president Fabrice Labeau wrote in an email to members of the McGill community Wednesday.
Jewish group Federation CJA has said a vigil is planned at McGill’s Roddick Gates on Monday afternoon to mark one year since Hamas’s attack on Israel killed around 1,200 people. Hamas also took more than 250 people hostage, of whom almost 100 remain unaccounted for.
An exhibit about a Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival that day, which killed more than 360 people, will also be set up in the area.
The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run territory says nearly 41,700 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since Oct. 7.
McGill is asking professors to move classes online if they don’t need to take place in person and for staff who can to work from home. However, it says midterms, assessments and labs will remain in person and that thesis defences and comprehensive exams will take place as scheduled.
The measures being put in place “facilitate the continuity of teaching, research and other activities, support the well-being of all at McGill, and seek to deter and prevent activities that violate the law and our policies, thereby destabilizing our campus at a very sensitive time,” Campbell and Labeau wrote.
The university said there is no specific threat to physical safety, but that it wants to avoid disruption of academic activities.