UW goes to court to end pro-Palestinian encampment, cites ‘intimidation’

Claiming “intimidation and harassment,” the University of Waterloo has turned to the courts to end the pro-Palestinian encampment on its campus.

A statement from the school said its lawyers served court documents on Tuesday to begin a legal process to enforce a trespass notice issued to the camp.

Specifically, the university is “seeking an interlocutory injunction to end the encampment.”

The trespass notice given the week prior “required the encampment to leave immediately or face consequences in accordance with the Trespass to Property Act.”

The encampment is still in place on the lawn outside Graduate House.

The statement adds “the right to protest does not mean people have the right to endlessly occupy a shared university space. The behaviour of encampment members has crossed the line to intimidation and harassment making their ongoing presence untenable.”

In response, the encampment took to its social media accounts, saying it is “incredibly shameful that [the university] is choosing to sue their own student body protesting their university’s complicity in a genocide that’s nine months in and has claimed the lives of over 40,000.”

Another post reads, “We are students who have risked everything we have to protest our universities complicity in this genocide and we refuse to allow those who fund death and destruction to break our resolve.”

A student spokesperson recently told CityNews 570 they were getting advice from professionals, but protest representatives have yet to clarify what that entails.

On Wednesday, they are hosting a solidarity picnic at noon, inviting students and faculty to bring their lunches and eat the encampment as a show of support.

The university said documents about the injunction will be made public through the school’s legal counsel’s website, if the court allows.