National

ORGANIZERS EXPECT PROPOSAL FROM UNIVERSITY ON MONDAY

The pro-Palestinian encampment on Tabaret Lawn on the University of Ottawa’s campus has concluded its fourth week. Across the province, encampments are beginning to end — either by will, or force, but Tabaret Lawn remains occupied.

On Monday, May 20^th, Ontario Tech University administration offered a number of commitments to students, provided they took down the encampment within 24 hours.

Commitments included the creation of a working group to review investment practices and recommendations, the funding of three undergraduate scholarships for Palestinian refugees, and the protection of students and faculty from “academic and/or employment-based retaliation.”

At Queen’s University, negotiations between protesters and administrators throughout the encampment’s duration produced plans for a divestment committee, leading protesters to end their encampment on Wednesday, May 22.

Two days later, protesters at McMaster University agreed to end their encampment following a resolution that included amending the university’s investment policy and inviting Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McMaster to give a divestment presentation at the school’s Board of Governors meeting in October.

But at the University of Toronto, talks have not been as fruitful. On Friday, May 24, U of T Campus Safety officers issued trespass notices to protesters. The notices gave protesters until Monday morning to clear the encampment and came one day after U of T President Meric Gertler gave 24 hours notice to accept the administration’s most recent offer and end the encampment.

Protest spokesperson Kalliopé Anvar McCall — a fourth-year U of T student in diaspora studies — described the offer as “nothing but a summary of [the university’s] already existing procedure on divestment and disclosure”.

Back in Ottawa, protesters disrupted presentations being held on Thursday at the Ottawa Mathematics and Statistics Conference (OMSC) at the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE) building on King Edward Avenue.

Holding banners, signs, and a Palestinian flag, the protesters spoke to attendants and asked organizers to move the conference to Tabaret Lawn through a presenter’s microphone, switching to their own megaphone after the microphone was turned off.

“We can show the university that we won’t allow any conferences to occur here until divestment happens,” said a speaker after apologizing for the disruption. Campus security arrived on scene within minutes of the presentation from protesters concluding.

As Israel defies a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to “immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah” and continues deadly air strikes on the city at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, Hamas launched rockets at central Israel on Sunday morning. Several of these rockets were reported as intercepted by the Israeli military, with no injuries reported. Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli Defense Forces since October 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, protesters at the U of O once again moved through Ottawa and converged on Tabaret Lawn for scheduled programming.

Protest organizers are waiting on a proposal from the university on Monday, May 27th, which will be followed by a meeting on Wednesday, May 29th, to discuss the proposal.

“I can’t give details as to what was discussed but we’re very hopeful [about the proposal],” an organizer told the Fulcrum. “The last meeting was pretty positive.”

University of Ottawa spokesperson Jesse Robichaud was not immediately available to comment on the negotiations.