MONTREAL — Thousands of students gathered in downtown Montreal on Tuesday for a pro-Palestinian demonstration marking the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
The students set off smoke bombs and burned an Israeli flag on the campus of McGill University during a protest that was heavily monitored by police, including officers in riot gear and on horseback.
They demanded their colleges and universities divest from companies tied to Israel’s military, and accused the schools of being complicit in what they called a genocide.
“Today marks two years of ongoing genocide in Gaza,” said Iman Nour, a representative of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance, which helped organize Tuesday’s demonstration. “The students are united in our demands for divestment.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people and took 250 hostages during an attack in southern Israel. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
In September, independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel rejected as “distorted and false.”
Student associations representing more than 80,000 college and university students in Montreal opted for a strike this week in solidarity with Palestinians, according to the group Divest for Palestine.
The protest on Tuesday remained largely peaceful through the afternoon, and there were few clashes with police. Students from several Montreal colleges and universities gathered near the campus of Concordia University before marching to McGill.
On McGill’s lower campus, not far from the site where a pro-Palestinian encampment was erected for several months last year, students set off smoke bombs and chanted their support for Gaza. They also set fire to an Israeli flag bearing red handprints.
Ayman Driouich, a student at Université de Montréal, said he’s being trained to use compassion and help others at the university’s medical school.
“So we really find that it is kind of hypocritical that our university might be involved in a genocide,” he said.
“And we really want to showcase that we’re supportive of the Palestinian people and that we really want our university to take concrete action and try and stop the genocide as much as possible.”
Earlier in the day, Concordia’s president and vice-chancellor announced the university’s downtown campus would be closed due to the protest.
“With hundreds of protesters from other universities and (colleges) expected – as well as counter-protesters not linked to the university planning to gather outside our downtown campus this afternoon – the threat of extreme disruption is simply too high to operate as usual,” Graham Carr said in a message to students and staff.
Carr said the university had “never been forced to enact such preventive measures” during other protests in the last two years. But he said the situation changed after two people were arrested Monday following the disruption of a class and a midterm exam. He said the people were not Concordia students, and one of them was found to be in possession of “a metal bar and several incendiary devices.”
“I am sure the vast majority of you are fed up with the behaviour and disrespect some exhibit toward the university,” he said. “But the safety of our community is paramount.”
A small group of counter-protesters waving Quebec flags gathered near the students at the Concordia campus on Tuesday, though police kept the two groups separate. In a speech to the crowd, one of the counter-protesters said Jewish students are feeling unsafe at Montreal universities.
“The leadership in our university is not doing what it is supposed to do,” she said. “It is giving in to the violent tactics the other side is imposing on everybody.”
The protest was one of several happening in the city on Tuesday, with marches continuing into the evening.
Safa Chebbi, a master’s student in sociology at the francophone university UQAM, said Israel is committing international war crimes and that citizens need to stand up to denounce what’s happening.
““For months now, a famine has been orchestrated and used as a weapon of war,” she told scores of people gathered in Victoria Square, near the city’s old port.
Montreal police said there were no arrests or injuries related to report to the protests.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2025.
— with files from Miriam Lafontaine and The Associated Press
Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press
