More pro-Palestinian protest camps emerge at Canadian universities

Hundreds of students and faculties set up an encampment at the University of Toronto on Thursday as a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at North American universities continued to spread, reported Xinhua.

The latest protesters on the campus of the University of Toronto have been told they have to leave by 10 p.m. (0200 GMT Friday) but they are staying onsite.

If the protesters' activities remain peaceful, it does not intend to remove them from campus this evening, the university said in a statement released earlier.

"The Toronto Police Service is monitoring the protest. Please encourage others to remain peaceful ... Hate speech, threats, and other discriminatory language or behaviour do not constitute peaceful protest," it said.

In Canada, encampments started with 20 tents at the McGill University in Montreal on Saturday. University of British Columbia in Vancouver followed on Monday and tents appeared on the campus of the University of Ottawa on Tuesday. Protesters began setting up tents on Wednesday at three other universities, namely Western University in Ontario, University of Victoria and Vancouver Island University.

The protesters are demanding that their schools divest from companies with business ties to Israel.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said that the encampment must be taken down. "It's an illegal encampment," Legault said, "I expect police to dismantle these encampments."

Previously the McGill University declared the encampment on its campus illegal, saying that the growing encampment violated the university's policies and the law.

Meanwhile, a Quebec judge rejected an injunction request from two students at the McGill University to move a protest camp further away from school buildings, citing limited evidence of potential harms to students if the encampment remained in place, local media reported.