In an email to students, Concordia University announced it would close its downtown campus Tuesday to avoid “potentially obstructive” protests that are planned for later.
“Unless already scheduled, faculty may choose to switch to remote delivery, if feasible,” wrote Graham Carr, Concordia University’s president and vice-chancellor.
Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary since Hamas’s attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to about 250 people taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. A day after the attack, Israel formally declared war on Hamas — and the military campaign that has followed has killed more than 66,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Thousands of Montreal students will be on strike on Tuesday to show their support for the Palestinian people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the last two years.
Demonstrations are expected Tuesday afternoon around Concordia University’s Henry F. Hall Building as well as the area surrounding the Square-Victoria–OACI Metro station.
Carr stated that the institution made the decision to close the campus on Tuesday to “protect our entire community.”
“In the last two years, we have seen protests on campus but have never been forced to enact such preventive measures,” he wrote.
There was a demonstration around the Hall building on Monday as well.
Montreal police spokesperson Raphaël Bergeron told CBC News two people were arrested in connection with that protest — one for assaulting a security guard and the other for mischief for triggering a fire alarm.
Carr said neither of these individuals are “members of the Concordia community.”
Carr added that with “hundreds” of protesters from other universities and CEGEPs expected, as well as “counter-protesters not linked to the university” planning to gather outside the downtown campus on Tuesday afternoon, the “threat of extreme disruption is simply too high” for the university to operate as usual.