The last pro-Palestinian protest encampment in Canada, at the Vancouver Island University campus in Nanaimo, has been dismantled.
Pro-Palestinians protesters who have been camping at VIU’s quad since May 1 were given a 9:30 a.m. Sunday deadline to clear the encampment and leave.
Videos posted online by protesters show a university employee reading out the court order as well as people dressed in hazmat suits entering the encampment to tear it down on Sunday morning.
B.C. Supreme Court granted VIU an injunction to clear the grassy quad area.
As part of the decision from Justice Michael Stephens, structures will no longer be allowed on the patch of grass where the encampment was set up.
The decision said that all students have to abide by a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. applicable only to the grass area within the quad for the next 150 days, the decision said.
Paul Walton, who occasionally walks through the VIU campus for exercise, said the grassy area was completely cleared of structures and people were packing up the remaining items by 11:30 a.m.
In a video statement, protesters vowed that their movement will continue.
Speaking to supporters who had gathered at the encampment site, Sara Kishawi said it would be “comedic” for VIU to assume that protests would stop after Sunday.
Kishawi said it was shameful that the university went to court to remove its students rather than listen to their concerns.
“The encampment, since day one, was our way of protesting the genocide in Palestine,” she said.
“It was a place to grieve together, to share culture, to talk about what’s happening.
“It became a community space,” she said.
The camp had advertised regular mahjong and film screening events during its 110 days of existence.
In May, some faculty members organized a literature festival outside the camp in support of the protesters.
In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the university said it had hired a security firm to help dismantle the encampment.
Fencing was installed around the area and all personal belongings left on site have been documented and secured for people to retrieve, it said.
The university said it would have more to say in the coming days.
According to its civil claim notice, VIU estimates it has spent more than $870,000 on encampment-related matters since the encampment started.
Those expenses are expected to lead to more layoffs and reduced services at VIU, the university said.
Encampments sprang up in the spring on campuses across North America in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Participants demanded universities cut financial and academic ties with firms and institutions linked to Israel.
