Protestors to march to uOttawa as encampment enters its second week

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Hundreds of protesters began marching at about 2:40 p.m. Saturday, chanting “no justice, no peace” and “shut it down” as they walked down Elgin Street.

The protest march began at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street at 2 p.m.

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Around 10 police walked up ahead, with others walking along the sides of the crowd.

The pro-Palestinian supporters were marching to the University of Ottawa to join with an encampment that began April 29.

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There are about 70 tents now set up on the front lawn of Tabaret Hall.

Sarah Abdul-Karim, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said the march will run along Rideau Street before demonstrators make their way to the uOttawa encampment. It’s the 31st protest march in a row by the group.

“This weekend’s action is an important one as this week marks the start of the eighth month of the genocide in Gaza,” read a statement from Labour for Palestine Ottawa. “The rally comes at a crucial moment of this genocide as zionist forces begin their final invasion into Rafah.”

According to the Associated Press, as of May 10 the death toll from the war in Gaza had reached over 34,500 people since Oct. 7, when Israel launched an offensive following a Hamas attack which killed around 1,200 people.

The Associated Press notes that over half of Gaza’s population has been sheltering in Rafah, with evacuations now forcing people north.

The statement from Labour for Palestine Ottawa says the federal government refuses to take decisive action such as calling for a permanent ceasefire and implementing a two-way arms embargo.

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“Canadians in Ottawa and across the country will continue ensuring their government hears their demands,” the statement read.

The protesters began a pro-Palestinian sit-in on the lawn of Tabaret Hall on April 29 and later set up tents on the site.

The encampment sprawls from Wilbrod to Laurier streets, with the lawn covered with flags, lawn chairs and a “people’s library.”

In a tented “check-in area” are whiteboards with the day’s schedule and a list of needed supplies, like coffee, solar lights, poster boards and water jugs.

The entrance to Tabaret Hall, and the sidewalks in front of it, are coloured with chalk and markings with messages like “from the river to the sea,” “disclose, divest, terminate, adopt” and “free Palestine.”

The group’s demands include for uOttawa to disclose the companies it invests in and for the university to divest its pension fund from corporations and institutions, like Scotiabank, associated with Israel and its army.

Retired engineering professor Eric Schiller, who taught at the University of Ottawa for 18 years, said he was proud of the demonstrators, being a longtime activist himself.

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“I lived through the Vietnam process,” said Schiller, who protested himself while pursuing his PhD at the University of Iowa in 1970. “(Students) are the best hope, they are the future.”

There is no such encampment at Carleton University, where metal fencing blocks access to the campus’s quad. The university’s student news organization, the Charlatan, reported that the university’s administration said barriers were in place for safety purposes ahead of planned construction projects.

Several Carleton groups have been involved in the movement despite not having their own encampment. According to the Charlatan, the university’s branches of Students for Justice in Palestine and Independent Jewish Voices and the union representing its contract instructors and teaching assistants have held events at the uOttawa encampment.

As of Saturday morning, more than 200 faculty members, librarians, and staff from the University of Ottawa, Saint Paul University and Carleton University have signed a solidarity statement with the student encampment.

“We support their right to protest as well as the right of students to criticize and oppose University policies,” the statement reads. “We urge the university administration to meet with the student leaders to discuss their demands, as they have requested.”

PHOTO GALLERY

With Postmedia files.

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