Inside From the Outside on U of T Encampment

"First fact is that strict majority of people I talked to are neither students nor affiliated with our university. We have something like 100,000 students and tons of staff, so it's not hard to find them! But yeah, 'student encampment' is just objectively wrong as a description."

"They took down one piece of fencing on the quad where convocation events happen next week, and have a handful of [masked] people controlling entry."

"I walked round the 'sign-in' and no one noticed for ten minutes or so. But it's [not] free entry.

"The 'security' and 'spokesperson' both explicitly said that if you don't support the collective's view on Palestine, you aren't welcome and they will remove you."

"Actually, I was specifically told to leave now or 'it would become more uncomfortable'."

"I don't really get why we'd allow this. All have the right to protest! Free country. But letting a group of masked [non] students control entry to quad, letting them turn it into a campground with tents: you can just take down the tents and entry gate without touching anyone."

Kevin A. Bryan, economist, associate professor, University of Toronto business school

Anti-Israel demonstrators wave flags and hold up smartphones outside the fenced in area of an encampment on the University of Toronto campus on May 2, 2024. Photo by COLE BURSTON /AFP via Getty Images

He was skeptical about the identities and purpose inherent in the anti-Israel protests taking place at the University of Toronto, where students and clearly others had set up an encampment inside King's College Circle. So he decided that he'd go out and have a look around, himself. It wasn't particularly difficult for him to infiltrate the group, illegally assembled with their posters and banners, tents and expressions of hatred for Zionists and Israel. He just began by walking about nonchalantly. And engaging others in brief conversations.

What the professor found damning and disconcerting was that the protesters took it upon their assumed authority to block anyone from accessing the area other than those whom they scrutinized and questioned to ensure that they were singing from the same vitriolic hymnal. The university environs are private property, and none of the groups assembled across Canada and the United States at various universities have secured permission of the various university administrations to stage their volatile confrontations.

 

Pro-Palestinian encampment in an area that was fenced off at the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto on Thursday May 2, 2024. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

Professor Bryan walked among the protesters for a good half-hour before he was identified as an outsider, asked to leave on the basis of the revelation he failed to share the outlook  and values of the organizing groups. He did eventually leave under some duress and then shared his observations on social media, expressing his opinion that many of the protesters had no link to the university. "A short note on the encampment that's now set up here in Toronto @UofT. I snuck into it today [I told them I was a fellow comrade who'd stepped out to get a cigarette.] I think it's only fair to talk to the folks and see what's going on before judging."

Well, he did see what was going on, he did speak to protesters to discuss with some that the huge "Honour to the Martyrs" poster, logically interpreted as pro-violence since martyrdom as it is meant in the Gaza conflict has a sinister Islamist ring to it that martyrdom is achieved by killing Israelis and Jews. The person to whom he spoke was insistent that he misunderstood; martyr and intifada are not, she said, violent terms.

As for the group demanding that the university divest its funds from any entities, businesses or individuals having anything to do with Israel in any way, shape or form, he remarked to them that U of T has no such investments. "The university response right now is basically 'let it peter out'. They have campus security in case a fight breaks out But they're still complicit in allowing the 'entry gate'." The Professor videoed what he came across at the protest site, but just to ensure he had documentation of what he was commenting on. 

The entrance to a pro-Palestinian encampment in an area fenced off at the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

"...I'm not going to post my video. I didn't even take a phone out until a kid made an implicit threat."

"But I do think @UofT needs to understand what's actually happening, and the embarrasing @utfaculty letter implying faculty support, this needs to be retracted."

"And, last last thing: Just want to be really clear that I didn't take a census.All I know directly is, majority I talked to weren't Uof T affiliated."

"We also know that the protest was partly organized by USW [United Steelworkers Union]. Beyond that, you'll have to do some journalism yourself!"

Professor Kevin A. Bryan