Pro-Palestinian protesters vacated their encampment at the University of Victoria on Monday, a few hours after a university deadline for them to leave.
Protesters, who had been camped in front of the UVic library since May 1, were told by campus security on Saturday that they were trespassing and had until 8 a.m. Monday to leave university grounds.
About 60 people gathered on the university quad on Monday morning to help with the teardown.
Remaining protesters vacated the encampment around 1:30 p.m. in a group, leaving behind a palisade made of wooden pallets and other items, along with a large sign on the ground that read: “Still we rise.”
Security workers and Saanich police entered the site and crews began erecting fencing.
A member of campus security said protesters had until 8 p.m. Monday to pick up any items left behind.
The day before, protesters had called for supporters to come to the camp for a “trespass breakfast,” making no mention of their plans to leave.
By 9 a.m. Monday, protesters had taken down nearly all of the 50-odd tents that had been erected behind the palisade. Some protesters embraced as the camp came to an end.
A masked protester told reporters the decision was made to tear down the camp after police began ramping up their presence on campus.
The protester, who had been involved in the protests since the first day, said encampment protesters are disappointed by how UVic acted during negotiations. “We could tell things were going south about a week ago, so we started to pull things out,” he said.
Protesters had been calling for UVic to divest from corporations supporting Israel, cut academic ties to that country and “condemn the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.”
UVic publicly said on June 4 that it would not negotiate with protesters unless they agreed in writing to refrain from disrupting campus operations.
The university said in an update Monday that it has started restoring the university quad lawn in anticipation of the fall return of students.
“We understand that this has been a challenging and deeply divisive time and appreciate the efforts that many are making to respond with empathy and patience,” the statement said. “Further updates will be provided in the coming days.”
No incidents were reported while the encampment was being dismantled.
The university has not made anyone available for an interview with the Times Colonist about the encampment, which began May 1.
A protester who did not give his name said that the pro-Palestinian student movement at UVic won’t end after the camp is gone.
“It ends when UVic starts to acknowledge the ruling of the [International Court of Justice] that this is an occupied territory, that there’s an ongoing genocide, when UVic gets the courage to start to use the word Palestine and Palestinians when referring to this ongoing conflict.
“This ends when Palestine is free.”
Some student protesters are now homeless and jobless because of their participation in the encampment, he said, adding those people will likely be camping out in the yards of friends they made during the encampment.
The camp formerly housed a garden, kitchen, library and bike shed and had regular social and educational events. The garden remained on Monday, with plants yellowing in raised garden beds.
As protesters divvied up leftover supplies and moved materials to cars, the security presence was heavy but largely out of view, with just a handful of campus security members visible near the encampment.
Paladin security guards were stationed inside the library and other campus buildings near the encampment.
As the day went on, some people began to approach the encampment to take photos and video. Protesters quickly held up makeshift barriers and began chants.
One person who arrived by bike and took close-up photos of people in the encampment shortly before 10:30 a.m. was walked out of the area by protesters with a human blockade amid chants.
“This is public land,” said the man, who said he was a former officer in the Israel Defence Forces with PTSD who is currently employed at UVic.
After being asked by campus security to leave, the man continued to take photos of the encampment from a distance.
UVic said in a Saturday that talks through an unspecified third-party facilitator had been unsuccessful in negotiating a time and process for the encampment to end peacefully. “As we see no further prospect for successful dialogue, the university has advised the People’s Park UVic that they are trespassing and asked them to leave university property,” the statement said.
Philosophy professor Audrey Yap said that she was disappointed to see UVic shut down the encampment. Yap said the student protesters stood up for what they believed in despite the risks.
Many of the protesters donned masks and other face coverings because they are concerned about retribution, she said. “I can stand here with my full face and say that I support them as a tenured faculty member,” Yap said.
“They don’t have the protections that I have and lots of them are really vulnerable. So not giving up names, not necessarily wanting their faces out there seems super- reasonable to me.”
The encampment at UVic was established during a wave of similar demonstrations that swept across North America.
Most have since been dismantled, including one that was voluntarily vacated at the University of British Columbia on July 7, but an encampment at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus remained in place on Monday, despite an order from the university to depart by July 15.
A VIU spokeswoman said Monday that there was no update on the situation.
The university has said it had begun court action seeking an injunction against the protest camp.
An Ontario court granted the University of Toronto a similar injunction against a protest camp on property-rights grounds.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
