Pro-Palestinian activists in Montreal attempted to topple a historic statue of Queen Victoria near the site of a new encampment Monday night.
The new encampment occupying the city’s Victoria Square also faced a counter-protest of Montreal residents fed up with the anti-Israel activists and their tactics.
As previously reported by True North, activists with the Divest for Palestine Collective are demanding that Quebec’s pension fund divest from companies with ties to Israel and that the Quebec government close its Tel Aviv trade office.
The activists are calling their protest the “Al-Soumoud popular camp.”
Hateful messages condoning Palestinian violence as “resistance” were seen at the encampment, including a tarp that read “Peace is the white man’s word, resistance is ours.”
Activists attempted to topple the statue of Queen Victoria found in the square Monday night, although they were stopped by police.
A city worker has since removed the strap that was to be used to topple the statue, along with a Palestinian flag that was placed on it.
Speaking to the media about the attempted toppling, encampment organizer Benoit Allard said, “our struggle is an anti-colonial struggle” and that “the statue in question is a statue of Queen Victoria, which is a colonial symbol.”
Allard however refused to confirm or deny if his crew was involved in the failed toppling attempt.
Pro-Palestinian protesters had already vandalized the statue by splattering it with paint and spray-painting the words “Free Palestine” and “F**k the crown” on its base.
The Queen Victoria statue is not the first statue in the city to be targeted by activists. Black Lives Matter protesters toppled a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at Place du Canada during one of their “defund the police” protests in 2020. A statue of McGill University founder James McGill was also removed the following year after multiple incidents of vandalism from far-left radicals.
Encampment activists were met with counter protests from Montreal locals Tuesday.
About one hundred people showed up to protest the new encampment Tuesday afternoon. Photos taken by CBC show protesters holding signs saying “Enough is enough” and “Montreal taken hostage… liberate our public spaces.”
“Clearly, they’re using space that should be for everybody, and they’re excluding people,” counterprotest organizer Peter Villani told the Montreal Gazette. “They could protest, and they can walk up and down, I have no problem with that. But they can’t say, ‘I’m locking this up, and you can’t come here.’”
In a statement, Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada called for the encampment to be dismantled.
“The Victoria Square encampment, the second, ongoing, inciting and hateful encampment in (Montreal), is an example of the further devolution of the situation in the city.” they noted. “The Mayor, City Council, and the SPVM must take immediate action to restore order and regain the trust of the community.”
Montreal police told True North they are closely monitoring the situation.
“Police officers are on the ground to ensure everyone’s safety,” a Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal spokesperson said. “The role of police officers in such a situation is to ensure peace, good order and the safety of all those involved, while respecting their rights and freedoms.”
They added that police are continuing “to evaluate possible avenues for the future, (but) advocating for a peaceful outcome.”
Responding to the protesters’ demands, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the Quebec pension fund, said in a statement that its “direct exposure to Israel represents less than 0.1 per cent of our portfolio.”
The fund noted, however, that it would not be making any new investments in a “war zone” for an indefinite period of time.
The Quebec government, meanwhile, has said it will not close its Tel Aviv office.
“The presence of the Quebec office in the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv should not be interpreted as taking a stand in the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” the office of Quebec Minister of International Relations Martine Biron said in a statement.
Biron’s office added that the office seeks to be a “gateway” to the Middle East and seeks to “support companies wishing to do business there.”
Encampment organizers have vowed to keep on fighting until their demands are met, stressing that Israel is an oppressor state oppressing Palestinians.
“We’re here to stay until our demands are met,” said Allard. “We don’t want Quebecers’ money to be stained with the blood of oppressed peoples.”