Pro-Palestinian protesters will present a counteroffer to the U of T administration

TORONTO — Pro-Palestinian protesters who have been encamped at the University of Toronto for weeks planned to present a counteroffer to school administrators Sunday, hours before a deadline set by university officials to vacate the encampment.

Shortly before a scheduled 5 p.m. meeting with the school’s administration, a spokesman for the camp said the protesters had drawn up a list of demands they hoped would encourage the university to quickly divest from investments in profiteering companies of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

“We hope that the University of Toronto recognizes the gravity of the situation at hand and recognizes that we have no time to waste,” Sara Rasikh, a master’s student who studies social justice education at the school, said in an interview.

“Our counteroffer shows that procedures cannot be slow, bureaucratic or dictatorial when people die.”

Rasikh and his fellow protesters planned to demand that the university immediately disclose its public investments related to Israel’s offensive and form a joint task force to study its private investments.

Protesters prefer a task force to the school’s proposed ad hoc committee, which they say could drag out the divestment process and end without any action, Rasikh said.

Also in the counteroffer was a demand that the school cut ties with Hebrew University, which it claimed had a presence in the illegal settlements, and with the Technion, an Israeli institute of technology, which it claimed was working with the technology based on the artificial intelligence used by Israeli forces. to identify bombing targets.

Rasikh was not sure who would represent the university at the meeting or how long the session would last, but said she hoped “they will come back to the negotiating table in good faith.”

The university issued a trespass notice to the protesters on Friday, requiring them to vacate the premises by 8 a.m. Monday, when Rasikh said the school planned to seek an injunction that could force them to leave.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the counteroffer or the possibility of an injunction on Sunday, but said in a statement Friday that it had “negotiated in good faith with the camp participants” who are “illegally” occupying its campus.

The statement said health and safety concerns arose from the creation of the camp, which “created an environment on campus that is contrary to the university’s commitment to foster a welcoming and safe community for all members to freely participate and express themselves.”

The protesters said they will not go anywhere until the school meets their demands. Rasikh added on Sunday that the protesters have lawyers ready to fight any order that comes their way.

The group received support over the weekend from the Ontario Federation of Labour, which represents 54 unions and one million Ontario workers.

Federation president Laura Walton said in a letter to UofT president Meric Gertler on Saturday that she was “disappointed” that the school had issued a breach notice and urged him to “immediately reverse course and choose negotiations and discussions at the expense of ultimatums and repression”.

Walton told Gertler that he plans to host a solidarity rally on the grassy expanse of King’s College Circle, where protesters have set up their tents since May 2. The rally is scheduled to begin at the same time as the violation notice deadline.

“If, until then, you decide to move against the students, you will have to go through the workers first,” Walton wrote to the school’s president.

Encampments on university campuses have sprung up across Canada in recent months, with several universities grappling with how to appease the protesters and free up their seats again.

In the past month, demonstrators have taken over sites at the University of Calgary, McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria and the University of Vancouver Island in BC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2024.

Tara Deschamps, Canadian Press