For over a month now, some students at McGill University have stopped eating anything. It is their way of putting pressure on the administration of their school. Their demands are simple, one of the strikers tells us: “Divestment and disassociation from Zionist companies and universities.”
We are in the middle of March. Despite the few hot days that Montreal enjoyed over the last few weeks, it is quite cold today. However, this does not prevent students from basking in the sun outside on campus. This is where La Converse meets Chadi, one of the students who is continuing an indefinite strike. “I haven't eaten anything for 29 days now. I only drink water, electrolytes and broth,” begins the student, with a cane at the end of his hand.
Initially, Chadi was on hunger strike with Rania, another committed student. But at the end of last week, at the end of his 34E On strike day, Rania had to break her fast due to hospitalization made necessary by severe dehydration.
Passing the iconic university doors on Sherbrooke Street, no one can ignore the police cars parked at the entrance. “They are always there,” Chadi tells me. Since we organized a few Sit-In students a few weeks ago, there are often police here.”
What do the strikers want?
“As soon as the October attacks occurred near Gaza, I was extremely uncomfortable to see how the university was dealing with it. Students were constantly receiving emails from the administration about the tense situation on campus, but I found that the information shared was very biased,” he said. In these emails, the administration asked students in particular to “remain respectful and to demonstrate peacefully. [We] are here in a university, a place for learning and the advancement of knowledge. Our community has always been our strength.”
At the beginning of his studies, Chadi, a Montrealer of Lebanese origin, became friends with several students who shared the same frustration as him. Caused by the university's silence in the face of the violence in Gaza, this frustration grew over the weeks and months. “We started sending emails to the administration, participating in Walk-out students, at demonstrations. A picket was even organized to block the entrance to the school, the activist lists. Finally, after seeing that nothing was changing, we reached a point where we needed to find a more extreme way for university officials to finally listen to us.”
At 1 p.m. on March 28, dozens of students gathered in front of the institution's arts pavilion, just off Sherbrooke Street, and protested by performing a Die-In in solidarity with people who, like Chadi, stopped eating to get their officials to react.
That's how Chadi and other committed students organized themselves to start a hunger strike. Their request is simple: the institution must be held to account, because it did not adopt the “policy against the genocide in Palestine” that was voted on by 78% of undergraduate students. This policy requires in particular the disinvestment in companies deemed complicit in genocide and the sale of arms to the State of Israel, as well as the breaking of inter-university relationships between McGill and organizations that are auxiliary to the policies, considered repressive, of the Jewish State (Lockheed Martin and Safran).
“An administration that doesn't know what a majority of its undergraduate students want is pretty weird,” Chadi adds ironically.
Voted last fall, this policy, entitled “Policy against the Genocide in Palestine”, was adopted at a general meeting of the McGill University Student Association (AEUM). The latter required the establishment to sever all ties with businesses and institutions accused of being “complicit in settler colonialism, apartheid or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.” Today, this policy is on hold, as the AEUM received a request for an interim and interlocutory injunction, filed against this policy by a student who believed that it promoted antisemitism.
Photo: Melissa Haouari
Broken dream
Last September, Chadi started a bachelor's degree in psychology. “I was very eager to start my studies at McGill,” he admits, enthusiastic. “I did all my schooling in French, continues the Montrealer, but I chose McGill, but I chose McGill because I wanted to have an exemplary education, that of one of the best universities.”
“I didn't know how depressing this school was going to become for me.” This disappointment, he says, comes from the fact that he did not expect the university he had chosen to be so much in line with “colonial logic.”
A movement that is constantly growing
At the time of writing, Chadi is the only student still on an indefinite hunger strike. He is aware that a statement like that can lead to confusion. That is why he takes the time to explain how he and others exercise their activism.
“We have a somewhat particular system. We have indefinite strikers — like me, for example —, strikers on rotation and people who help with other aspects, he explains. Some fast for a period of three or four days and then others take over. It's their way of being in solidarity with the cause.”
When it comes to food, things are simple: “In our situation, we take water, broth and electrolytes. And by broth, I mean drinking water from a pot in which something has been boiled. I call it a kind of 'food tea',” he says with a laugh. “Tea and coffee are allowed, but they're not nutritious anyway,” he adds.
On 15 March, an open letter written by university graduates was sent to the administrative and executive staff of the institution. This Open letter has collected over 1,200 signatures to date from former students, professors, and staff, who publicly show their support for the hunger strikers and their demands. She presents the university's current ties with certain organizations and cites the case of several universities around the world that have cut off all relationships with Israeli universities deemed “complicit in genocide.”
This letter also recalls the role of McGill in history, as this educational institution was the first Canadian university to dispose of its assets linked to the South African apartheid regime following demand and pressure from the student body.
The hot potato game
What frustrates Chadi is that despite the speed at which this movement is growing and the support it is receiving, it is still almost invisible to those he wants to get people to react. The university administration has thus still not acceded to the demands of the strikers — or to those to organize a meeting under the conditions in which they want it.
After an exchange of emails between activists and some members of the administration, the situation remains at a standstill today, while time is running out. Screenshots shared on the Instagram page of the McGill hunger strikers movement show that university officials did not keep their word by offering space and a meeting with key stakeholders, under the conditions they requested. The screenshots show that a request for a public meeting was made between the students and the administration within a reasonable time in order to accommodate those who would like to participate. Later, the university proposed a meeting behind closed doors between the dean and the activists, to be held as soon as possible, out of “concern for the health and safety of the strikers”, a proposal that the latter refused because of non-compliance with the request for a public meeting.
It should be noted that at the time of writing these lines, the university is silent and has remained deaf to the demands of the strikers for 10 days.
“Why does the administration care about our health but does nothing to meet our demands? the citizen asks. I find that ridiculous.” Claiming to be betrayed, he wishes that the “hypocrisy” of those he points to would not go unnoticed.
We would like to point out that at the time of publishing this article, no one within the administration agreed to grant us an interview. Only a statement was released: “We respect the right of students to pursue political goals and to express political beliefs. Our priority remains the health and well-being of students participating in the hunger strike. [...] McGill has made it clear that it will not cut ties with Israeli universities and research institutions. We reminded students participating in the hunger strike that there is a process in place to voice their concerns about any university investment.”