Students at the University of Toronto have cleared out an encampment ahead of a court-ordered deadline to leave.
The move came a day after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the university an injunction to tear down the encampment, and gave Toronto police the authority to remove and arrest anyone who did not comply with the 6pm (22:00 GMT) deadline, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.
It quoted Mohammad Yassin, an encampment organiser, as saying: “We refuse to give the Toronto Police Service any opportunity to brutalise us.”
“We are leaving on our own terms to protect our community from the violence the University of Toronto is clearly eager to unleash upon us,” Yassin told reporters ahead of the deadline
“Let us be clear – the university will disclose its investments, divest from companies profiting from Palestinian suffering and deaths, and cut ties with academic institutions tied to the Israeli war machine. The question is not if, but when,” he added.
The encampment was set up on May 2, after students on campuses across North America set up similar sit-ins to demand their schools divest from companies profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Source: AlJazeera
