A group of pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a meeting of Carleton University’s Board of Governors (BoG) on April 29. The group entered the room demanding the university divest from companies linked to human rights violations in Palestine.
Shortly after the meeting began, students marched in holding a Palestinian flag and a sign which read, “Stop funding genocide, divest now.”
“Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” the group chanted as they entered the room.
“These are the same companies which have killed our family members, imprisoned our educators and have destroyed every single university in Gaza,” one protestor said during the demonstration.
The protest was a result of the “university’s ongoing refusal to listen to the Carleton community,” according to Carleton4Palestine in an April 29 Instagram statement.
The protest follows Carleton’s recent decision not to amend its Responsible Investing Policy to divest from companies like Altice International Ltd. and Booking.com that are tied to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory , according to a June 2023 United Nations report.
“We will not allow the university to bury these demands under bureaucratic excuses,” the Carleton4Palestine statement continues. “Carleton must acknowledge that continuing to invest in corporations that benefit from apartheid, occupation, and genocide constitutes a breach of its fiduciary duty.”
Campus security officers arrived minutes after the demonstration began and attempted to disperse the protesters, who had linked arms. A security officer took away a megaphone and a Palestinian flag from protesters.
In a May 1 email statement to the Charlatan, Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said the protesters’ remarks and materials will be reviewed.
“The Board listened to their remarks and received materials for consideration, after which Campus Safety escorted them out of the meeting,” the statement reads. “The materials provided to the Board will be reviewed as part of ongoing discussions about responsible investment.”
In Carleton4Palestine’s statement, the group alleged that “campus security brutalized students, throwing them to the ground, destroying microphones, and suppressing a peaceful demonstration before calling the Ottawa Police Services.”
Videos posted to Carleton4Palestine and SJPCarleton’s Instagram stories appear to show campus safety officers pushing student demonstrators into the stairwell as they removed the demonstrators from the building.
Once demonstrators were removed from Richcraft Hall, where the BoG meeting was held, one campus security officer was stationed outside the boardroom and another was at the building entrance.
“Until these demands are met, we will not stop. We will not rest. We will continue to escalate,” Carleton4Palestine’s statement reads. “Every meeting, every space, every corner of this university will hear our calls: Divest from genocide.”
Featured image by Douaa Qadadia/the Charlatan
