According to The Associated Press, McGill University in Montreal closed its downtown campus on Wednesday as police arrived in large numbers to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment that had been in place for weeks.
A Montreal police spokesman reported that one person was arrested for assaulting a security agent. McGill president Deep Saini described the encampment, one of many that have appeared on university campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, as "a heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence, organized largely by individuals who are not part of our university community."
Protesters carried their belongings off campus under heavy rain while bulldozers and security forces dismantled the encampment on the school's lower field. Félix Burt, a 20-year-old protester, told AP, "That was officially the last stand. There's nobody in the encampment anymore." In Quebec City, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry told reporters it was time to remove the protesters from the encampment. Déry expressed hope that the atmosphere on campuses would be calmer by the fall semester, stating that the current environment had become "toxic."
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