The protest was notably marked by actions reminiscent of the Nazi party from one protestor.
Over 10,000 students from 12 student associations at Concordia University were on strike last week, and hundreds of students gathered outside the Hall Building on Nov. 21 in solidarity with Palestine and other student strike demands.
Shortly after 2 p.m., the protesters broke into the Hall Building and then made their way up and down the 12 floors of the Hall Building. Some people graffitied “Free Gaza” and other messages in solidarity with Palestine or criticizing Concordia inside and on the outside of the building, notably on the sixth floor of the escalators. According to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) media relations officer Mariane Allaire Morin, the police have opened an investigation for mischief based on the graffiti inside the building.
The SPVM also opened an investigation into alleged assaults on two Campus Safety & Prevention Services (CSPS) security guards, Allaire Morin confirmed. She said that the security guards did not sustain major injuries. No arrest has been made in either case.
Concordia University did not respond to our questions regarding the protest.
While the vast majority of protesters did not engage in acts of violence, the protest was overshadowed by one protester’s acts directed toward the group of about two dozen pro-Israel counter-protesters gathered outside the Hall Building.
In videos circulating on social media, this protester told the pro-Israel counter-protesters that the “Final Solution is coming your way” and did a Nazi salute in their direction. The Final Solution was Nazi Germany’s plan for the mass murder of all European Jews during World War II.
According to several news organizations, the person in question was the owner of the Second Cup Café at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. In a statement on X, Second Cup Café announced it had “shut down the franchisee’s cafe and [is] terminating their franchise agreement.”
Mark Weiner is a Concordia student who was part of the group of pro-Israeli counter-protesters. He criticized the rhetoric used by some pro-Palestinian protesters and called for the university to be a safe space for all students.
“We want Concordia University to be a safe space for everybody, including the Jewish students, that have felt their voices and lives in danger over the past year or so,” he said.
Allaire Morin said the SPVM’s Module des incidents et des crimes haineux — the hate crime division — opened an investigation into the incidents.
The Concordia branch of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) co-organized the protest, which was endorsed by all 12 student associations who were on strike. An SPHR Concordia representative, who requested anonymity on the basis that he feared negative consequences from the university for being part of the group, said the individual was not a member of the group and condemned her actions.
“Our stance is very clear that we condemn any Nazi actions and any Nazi rhetoric that are used in general,” he said. “At the end of the day, if we have individuals who are just doing these very stupid actions, then there’s nothing we could do exactly because it’s an individual action.”
He also explained that SPHR could not go to every individual protester who attends their protests to ensure they would not do such actions and that it was clear to him that most protesters were peaceful and knew about SPHR’s position against fascism and Nazism.
The aim of the strikes was to protest Concordia’s investments in companies selling weapons to Israel, employment partnerships with these companies, and what they claim was a security-heavy reaction to pro-Palestinian protests, and to demand Concordia cut ties with various Israeli universities.
In an email, Concordia University’s deputy spokesperson, Julie Fortier, denied that the university had invested in the arms industry.
“The Concordia University Inter-Generational Fund (CUiF, Concordia’s primary investment arm) is actively working on ways to increase transparency with regard to its investment practices, decision-making processes, and reporting,” Fortier wrote in an email. “As we have stated previously, we do not have investments in the arms industry.”
Fortier also said that Concordia would not cut ties with Israeli institutions, as that would go against the university’s value of academic freedom.
Prior to the protest, Fortier said that CSPS had faced increased aggressivity by some protesters, notably during the student walkout on Sept. 25 and the protest on Oct. 31. She also explained that Concordia does not differentiate in their response based on the organizers.
“SPVM is only called when necessary and in accordance with Concordia’s policies, such as during incidents where the safety and security of community members are threatened or when criminal acts are committed on campus,” Fortier wrote via email. “All protests are managed in the same manner, regardless of who is organizing them.”
Before the protest began, Danna Ballantyne, the external & mobilization coordinator at the CSU and Palestinian student, expressed her gratitude to her fellow students who voted on strikes in solidarity with Palestine.
“I’ve been saying this for months to anyone who will listen just how insane it is to see a keffiyeh on someone who isn’t Palestinian,” she said. “Just that. Just a keffiyeh makes me feel like I am supported and protected in doing what I need to do to advocate for my people.”
According to the Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale, approximately 85,000 students from Quebec CEGEPs and universities were on strike in solidarity with Palestine last week.
“Having 85,000 students in this province telling their universities that they are not going to tolerate the mistreatment of my people and, in general, oppress and colonize people globally, it really is beyond inspirational,” Ballantyne said. “I feel like my optimism in the movement has grown exponentially in this past week.”
SPHR Concordia posted a video on Instagram in which multiple CSPS security guards shoved picketers out of the way to a classroom in the Hall Building and pushed them to a nearby stairwell. According to their representative, the incident took place Friday afternoon.
Fortier explained that CSPS took action after they received a complaint from the class, which was not part of the departments that had voted on a strike mandate. She also stated that CSPS’ objective is to de-escalate situations, but that students could not block access to classes.
“The class the protesters went to was an engineering class where students had not voted to strike and wanted to go to class,” Fortier wrote in an email. “A student trying to get to class could not, and agents separated the group to prevent an escalation between students. Striking students need to also respect others who wish to go to class.”
