McGill makes new offer to pro-Palestinian protesters occupying its downtown campus

By The Canadian Press on June 11, 2024.

Montreal’s McGill University is proposing to review its investments in weapons manufacturers and grant amnesty to protesting students as part of a new offer to members of a pro-Palestinian encampment on its downtown campus.

McGill says the offer it extended Monday includes a review of direct equity investments in entities that earn most of their revenues from the production of military weapons.

It is also offering to disclose more investments to include holdings below $500,000, to support Palestinian students displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, and to grant disciplinary amnesty to any McGill student or employee participating in the encampment prior to June 15.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been occupying McGill’s lower field since late April, demanding the university pull investments complicit in what they describe as the genocide of Palestinians and sever relationships with Israeli academic institutions.

McGill says its offer of amnesty doesn’t extend to those involved in the occupation last Thursday of a McGill University administration building, or to anyone who commits acts such as destruction of property, vandalism, or harassment.

The school is urging protesters, who have rejected prior proposals from the university, to discuss the latest offer through a skilled and impartial mediator, adding that it’s hoping for a peaceful and satisfactory resolution.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2024.

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